How do I get rid of anything other than the latest PowerShell?

britechguy · Aug 27, 2022

I am definitely way more comfortable with Command Prompt than PowerShell, but I do use PowerShell as well.

When I fire up Windows PowerShell, it always tells me to get the latest version, which I have done. If I hit the Windows Key and start typing PowerShell, here's what appears:

I also have Windows Terminal, too. I know what ISE is about, but I really don't need three different Windows PowerShell versions, two of which will nag me to install the third. Is there any way to nuke Windows PowerShell and Windows PowerShell (x86) just leaving the ISE and PowerShell 7 behind? And if you do so will Terminal use PowerShell7?

I'm not finding MS's own documentation particularly useful regarding this.

nlinecomputers · Aug 27, 2022

Nope. Certain functions require the old versions even when your not using Powershell directly. Removing it would break things.

Sky-Knight · Aug 27, 2022

Yep... "required system components" now... yay

britechguy · Aug 27, 2022

OK gentlemen, and my thanks.

This is something that makes me insane. I'm fine when things "get hidden" when they're still required behind the scenes, but I don't want to be seeing the last N versions available to me, as an end user. But since I must, I shall deal with it.

Sky-Knight · Aug 27, 2022

britechguy said:
OK gentlemen, and my thanks.

This is something that makes me insane. I'm fine when things "get hidden" when they're still required behind the scenes, but I don't want to be seeing the last N versions available to me, as an end user. But since I must, I shall deal with it.

Powershell is a nightmare no matter how you slice it, and the more you think about it, the worse it gets. The language is bonkers, the different versions are bonkers, and the worst part? If you want to be certified you have to know all of this crap and keep it straight WITHOUT any help.

The tests literally make you write powershell without access to the reference material.

It's all pain... it's all bad.

britechguy · Aug 27, 2022

Sky-Knight said:
The language is bonkers,

Which is why I have not adopted using it whenever I can avoid it. The syntax of Command Prompt is just so much more reasonable and compact.

Over the course of decades the design ideology has tended to be going toward making programming languages that are as compact as they can reasonably be, but yet still be understandable. You can see that taken too far (or at least it can be, by those trying to be as clever as they can be and refusing to comment) with C and regular expressions. But PowerShell is pure insanity in terms of how its commands and their modifiers look like a stream of coding diarrhea for the most simple of things. One of your examples (the one to get the Bitlocker key) is an example of just how unwieldy it is. It's like they took the very worst features of the "object oriented languages" and combined those with extreme verbosity and said, "Yes, perfection!"

Sorry, but no. Hell to the no!

GTP · Aug 28, 2022

I've tried to do exactly what you want: remove various shells, but as @nlinecomputers correctly stated - it actually does "break things."
There really is no way to remove them and keep the system stable.

britechguy · Aug 28, 2022

GTP said:
I've tried to do exactly what you want: remove various shells, but as @nlinecomputers correctly stated - it actually does "break things."
There really is no way to remove them and keep the system stable.

And I thank you for the additional, "Don't do it!," advice, and the rationale for same.

Markverhyden · Aug 28, 2022

Kind of like how IE hung around far longer than anyone really wanted.

GTP · Aug 28, 2022