Powershell version

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Paul Tower

• February 18, 2021 18:04

Is it possible to specify what version of Powershell the scanners use?  iow, Can I specify that client systems run the scanner using Powershell Core (7.x) as opposed to the built-in powershell 5.x?

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  Colby Bouma

  • February 18, 2021 20:07

  Not directly. PDQ Deploy and Inventory are built with .NET Framework, which can't tie into .NET Core things like PowerShell Core. PDQ would have to do a lot of work to add a native PS Core option.

  However, you can create a PowerShell Scanner that runs pwsh.exe. It's a bit of a kludge, but it seems to work. It would probably break if your script returns something that exists in PS Core, but not Windows PowerShell though. I created a proof of concept:

  

  Here's the contents of my Script field:

  pwsh -File '.\PS Core Test.ps1'
  [PSCustomObject](Import-CliXml -Path '.\Output.xml')

  Here's the contents of "PS Core Test.ps1":

  #Requires -Version 7
  $PSVersionTable | Export-Clixml -Path '.\Output.xml'

  

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  Colby Bouma

  • February 19, 2021 01:03
  • Edited

  I did some more experimentation and found a potentially cleaner way to do it.

  

  Execute PS Core.ps1

  param (
      [Parameter(Mandatory = "True")]
      [String]$FileName
  )
  
  $Contents = Get-Content -Path $FileName -Raw
  $ScriptBlock = [ScriptBlock]::Create($Contents)
  
  # "pwsh -File" outputs an array of strings. Boo!
  # "pwsh -Command [String]" outputs an array of strings too. Boo!
  # "pwsh -Command [ScriptBlock]" outputs the actual object(s) that pwsh returned. I have no idea why it's this way, but yay!
  pwsh -Command $ScriptBlock

  PS Core Test 3.ps1

  #Requires -Version 7
  [PSCustomObject]$PSVersionTable

  

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