Does Visual Studio Code work with PowerShell in the Command Palette? - powershell

Question

With Visual Studio Code (not the traditional Visual Studio IDEs), can you run PowerShell in the Command Palette? I ask because I commonly use it in the full IDE.
I have not seen PowerShell mentioned in the documentation, other than for basic syntax highlighting. I have tried it with no success. Is it unsupported, or is it an optional feature I can configure somehow?
Note: to those voting up the PowerGUI answer, it is not correct as it references the wrong edition of Visual Studio for this question. It is helpful if you are using the full IDE, but not the new editor named: Code.

Answer 1

This was the first problem I wanted to solve in VSCode. I did not find a way to
type PowerShell commands but I have found a way to create and run PowerShell tasks.
In the command palette type and choose Tasks: Configure Task Runner. It will
show you a json file configured for the default task runner.
I replaced the content with this
{
"version": "0.1.0",
"command": "PowerShell.exe",
"isShellCommand": true,
"args": [
"-NoProfile",
"Invoke-Build.ps1"
],
"tasks": [
{
"taskName": "Build",
"isBuildCommand": true,
"showOutput": "always"
},
{
"taskName": "Test",
"isTestCommand": true,
"showOutput": "always"
},
{
"taskName": "Build, Test",
"showOutput": "always"
}
]
}
As a result in the command palette I can choose and run my predefined tasks (Build, Test, and combined Build, Test). I can add other tasks and probably bind them to some hotkeys. This is not exactly what I would like to have in VSCode for PowerShell but for the preview it is at least something.
P.S. This just my first experiment that somewhat worked. It is not perfect, more likely. There are many configuration parameters for this json file that I have not tried yet.

Answer 2

With version 0.10.1 of Visual Studio Code, you can run and debug PowerShell. Here is a sample launch.json that I use:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
{
"name": "PowerShell",
"type": "PowerShell",
"program": "MyScript.ps1",
"args": "-Verbose"
}
]
}
Unfortunately, I cannot get the args to work (for more details, see: https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/issues/24). Another problem I have is that Read-Host does not work with VS Code (for more details, see: https://github.com/PowerShell/vscode-powershell/issues/29). Definitely some rough edges.

Answer 3

Here's how you can configure the Powershell task to execute the currently opened .ps1 file without any Invoke-Build dependency:
{
"version": "0.1.0",
"command": "PowerShell.exe",
"isShellCommand": true,
"args": [
"${file}"
],
"tasks": [
{
"taskName": "Build",
"isBuildCommand": true,
"showOutput": "always"
},
{
"taskName": "Test",
"isTestCommand": true,
"showOutput": "always"
},
{
"taskName": "Build, Test",
"showOutput": "always"
}
]
}
Note: This is just a slight modification of Roman's answer (My edit to his answer was rejected).

Answer 4

Open the Debug view, in the View Bar select Debug from the View menu or press Ctrl + Shift + D.
In the Launch Configuration dropdown (shown in the following screenshot), select Add Configuration...
The launch.json configuration will open in the editor, type PowerShell and select the debug configurations you want, as shown in the following screenshot.
Save the launch.json file and select the debug configuration you want from the Launch Configuration dropdown:
Now you can debug PowerShell scripts through VSCode.
The Scripting Guys wrote a comprehensive 2 part blog post on this topic, like everything else they write, it's well worth a read if you're new to VSCode and PowerShell.
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2017/02/06/debugging-powershell-script-in-visual-studio-code-part-1/
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2017/02/13/debugging-powershell-script-in-visual-studio-code-part-2/
EDIT: I am aware that this question is several years old, but I came across it before I found any up to date information on how to set up PowerShell debugging in VSCode

Answer 5

As of version 0.10.3 there is now a PowerShell extension written by Microsoft that will enable writing PowerShell with IntelliSense and highlighting in Visual Studio Code
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2015/11/17/announcing-windows-powershell-for-visual-studio-code-and-more.aspx

Answer 6

At least in V1.4 (July 2016) this has been made a lot simpler.
The relevant documentation can be found here:
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal
Essentially all you're doing is adding an entry to the settings.json file for User Settings.
Adding the following value:
// 64-bit PowerShell if available, otherwise 32-bit
"terminal.integrated.shell.windows":"C:\\Windows\\sysnative\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe"
IMG: Shows the User Settings settings.json file and the successful Integrated Console showing the PowerShell prompt:

Answer 7

An "Integrated Terminal" is now integrated into Visual Studio Code. This is a PowerShell Terminal in Windows. (Likely BASH in Linux / MacOS). The terminal appears in a panel at the bottom of the code editor, not in the Command Pallete.
Keyboard Shortcut to open Terminal: CTRL + `
Sources:
https://code.visualstudio.com/shortcuts/keyboard-shortcuts-windows.pdf
https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/keybindings
I confirmed in version 1.19.2. Not sure when the feature was first integrated.

Answer 8

There is a much easier way to run PowerShell, no configuration needed:
Install the Code Runner Extension
Open the PowerShell code file in Text Editor, then use shortcut Ctrl+Alt+N, or press F1 and then select/type Run Code, or right click the Text Editor and then click Run Code in context menu, the code will run and the output will be shown in the Output Window.
Besides, you could select part of the PowerShell code and run the code snippet. Very convenient!

Answer 9

PowerGUI tool provides a nice interface to Visual Studio. The goal of this extension is to bring PowerShell development into Visual Studio.
Here is how it looks -
Along with IntelliSense, the PowerGUI Visual Studio Extension provides the following features and more to make it easier to work with PowerShell.
PowerShell file and project types: You can create/edit PowerShell code files and assemble them into projects with more than one file.
PowerShell code snippets: The code snippet feature can be used for PowerShell code.
PowerShell console window: This feature provides the PowerShell console environment within Visual Studio IDE. This allows you to run commands or view output of scripts. Figure B shows the console window opened in the IDE.
PowerShell debugging: This feature is why I installed the extension; it provides a way to debug scripts within Visual Studio. It's a straight-forward way to locate syntax or logical problems in a script.
Syntax highlighting and script analysis: These are more Visual Studio features made available to PowerShell development.
In order to install the PowerGUI Visual Studio Extension, PowerGUI must be installed, with the caveat that the correct version of each product is installed.
Download Here
It also provides Debugging facility which is the best part I like as a developer.
Thanks!