A PowerShell profile may comprise a set of cmdlets, functions, and aliases to automate a set of requirements for the user. An overview of the PowerShell profile is provided in this guide. Moreover, you will also learn to create as well as customize the PowerShell profile.
How to Create a PowerShell Profile?
The PowerShell profile is not available for use by default. You need to create it before customizing various operations using PowerShell. A PowerShell profile can be created with the help of the New-Item cmdlet or using the notepad command. This section lists both methods for creating a PowerShell profile.
Note: It is preferred to use the most recent PowerShell 7. This guide uses PowerShell 7 for creating and using the PowerShell profile. You can switch to the latest PowerShell version using the following link:
Update your PowerShell version.
Method 1: Create a PowerShell Profile Using the New-Item Cmdlet
Generally, the New-item cmdlet is used to create a new file or directory in PowerShell. However, it also assists in creating a PowerShell profile by following the below-mentioned steps:
Step 1: Open PowerShell 7
Search for PowerShell 7 in the search bar and click on “Run as Administrator” to open PowerShell 7 with root privileges:
Step 2: Check the existence of the profile
In the second step, check whether the profile is already created or not via the following Test-Path cmdlet:
The returned output is false, which states the PowerShell profile has not yet been created.
Step 3: Create the Profile
Create a file named “profile.ps1” using the New-Item cmdlet as we did here:
The successful execution of the command verifies the creation of the PowerShell profile. However, you can verify it via the below-stated command:
The output returns true, showing that the creation of the profile is done in PowerShell.
Method 2: Create a PowerShell Profile Using Notepad
In this method, step-by-step instructions are discussed for building a PowerShell profile using Notepad.
Step 1: Create a profile
The notepad can be launched from PowerShell using the notepad keyword. The following command will create an empty PowerShell profile:
Step 2: Check the existence of the profile
In the second step, check whether the profile is already created or not via the following Test-Path cmdlet:
The display returns “True“, which shows the verification of the profile existence in PowerShell.
How to Customize a PowerShell Profile
The PowerShell profile needs to be customized to be used by other users. If the user scope is not defined, then the profile will only be accessible to the current user. You can customize a PowerShell profile for other users by using one of the following syntaxes:
| Profile Type | Profile Path/ Directory |
| Current User |
$PROFILE or $PROFILE.CurrentUserCurrentHost |
| All users |
$PROFILE.AllUsersCurrentHost |
| All users and all hosts |
$PROFILE.AllUsersAllHosts |
| Current user and all hosts |
$PROFILE.CurrentUserAllHosts |
For example, you can allow all the users to access the profile. For this purpose, the first command is executed. While the second command verifies that the profile is accessible to all users or not:
Test-Path $Profile.AllUsersAllHosts
The output ensures that the output returned is true, which states that the profile has been customized for all the users and the hosts.
Conclusion
A PowerShell profile comprises a set of aliases, cmdlets, functions, etc., to perform a specific sequence of tasks for a specific user. PowerShell’s profile scope can be set for the current as well as for all users. A PowerShell profile can be created using the New-Item cmdlet. By default, it is used for the current user. However, the profile can be created for multiple/all users as well. This post has provided details for the PowerShell profile.
