Cross-Platform Out-GridView

by Feb 18, 2021

Out-GridView is one of the most frequently used cmdlets and opens a general purpose selection dialog. Unfortunately, PowerShell can display graphical elements such as windows only on the Windows operating system. On Linux and macOS, graphical cmdlets such as Out-GridView are not available.

You may want to try the new text-based Out-ConsoleGridView instead. This cmdlet is available only for PowerShell 7 (it won’t work in Windows PowerShell). Install it like this:

Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleGuiTools -Scope CurrentUser

Once installed, in many cases you can now easily replace Out-GridView with Out-ConsoleGridView and enjoy a text-based selection dialog much similar to the good old Norton Commander. Here is a legacy Windows PowerShell script that wouldn’t work on Linux:

Get-Process | 
Where-Object MainWindowHandle | 
Select-Object -Property Name, Id, Description | 
Sort-Object -Property Name | 
Out-GridView -Title 'Prozesse' -OutputMode Multiple | 
Stop-Process -WhatIf

Simply replace Out-GridView with Out-ConsoleGridView, and you are all set.


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