Sharing Modules in Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core

by Jan 27, 2020

Many PowerShell users start to take a look at PowerShell 7, and run it side-by-side to the built-in Windows PowerShell.

Both PowerShell versions maintain their own locations for PowerShell modules, so when you add new modules (i.e. via Install-Module), you need to do this for both PowerShell versions separately.

There is one folder path though that is shared by both Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7: although introduced by Windows PowerShell, PowerShell 7 also looks into this folder and automatically loads modules located there:

C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

To use modules in both PowerShell versions, make sure you copy the module to this folder. When using Install-Module, use -Scope AllUsers (or omit the parameter altogether).

Since the folder affects all users, it is protected, and you need Administrator privileges to add modules to it.

Note that there is another path where PowerShell looks for modules:

C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

This is where all Microsoft modules reside. This path, too, is shared by PowerShell 7.


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