PowerShell 7.x ISE-Style App — Looking for Interest, Testers, Feedback, and Code Review

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1

Hi everyone,

My name is Ron, and I have been working on a Windows desktop app called PowerShellStudio. The goal is to provide a modern PowerShell 7.x ISE-style scripting environment for Windows.

The app is written in .NET 10 using Visual Studio 2026.

My goal is not to replace VS Code or compete with the full developer experience there. Instead, I am trying to build something closer in spirit to the original Windows PowerShell ISE, but updated for PowerShell 7.x. I wanted a focused scripting environment with a clean editor, integrated PowerShell console, script execution, syntax diagnostics, command and parameter completion, metadata-based IntelliSense, and a workflow that feels comfortable for people who liked the simplicity of the original ISE.

At this point, the app is running and usable, but it is still under active development. I would really value feedback from experienced PowerShell users.

I am especially interested in feedback on:

  • Running scripts from the editor

  • Interactive console behavior

  • PowerShell 7.x compatibility

  • Command and parameter completion

  • Syntax diagnostics and error display

  • General usability compared with the legacy ISE

  • Anything that feels awkward, broken, slow, or missing

I also want to build as much trust and transparency as possible. I am currently in the process of preparing a final preview version to add to GitHub. If there is interest, I will upload the complete source code so anyone can examine it, build it, and run it themselves. That way people can review how the app launches PowerShell, what files it creates, how the editor and console work, and verify that there is nothing hidden or unexpected.

I am not presenting the app as finished or perfect. I am hoping to see whether there is community interest while I am still actively working on it, and I would welcome feedback, bug reports, feature suggestions, design advice, and code review.

My goal is to make this a practical, reliable, community-informed PowerShell 7.x scripting environment, especially for people who still miss the workflow of the original ISE.

Project/source code:
[GitHub repository link]

Test build or installer:
[Download link]

Notes:
This is an early preview project. Please review the source code first if you prefer, and test in a safe/non-production environment.

If anyone here would be willing to test it, review the code, or simply give advice on what a good PowerShell 7.x ISE-style tool should include, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much,

Ron

PSS_MainUI
PSS_MainUI2547×1383 264 KB

2

Oh man I am very interested. It would be even more awesome if you could get Hemant Mahawar involved. I believe he was the main guy at Microsoft who developed ISE. Either way I’d love to see something like this. Even if it wound up being more like Kate or Geany as long as it is light weight and has an ISE like workflow (unlike VSCODE). :slight_smile:

3

For me, it would be support for VI as the editor :slight_smile: VSCode supports this via the VisVim extension.

4

Hi Vern,

Please to meet you!

I have added the full code base to GITHub. I updated the OP with the link You can build it in Visual Studio and run it.
I have the Install Packages ready for anyone who just wants to install it without building. I will host it on my own server and post the link in the OP

-Ron

5

Hi Tonyd,

Thanks, I think I understand what you mean — you are asking for optional vi/Vim-style editor support, similar to using Vim/VsVim keybindings in VS Code.

That would mean modal editing support, such as normal/insert mode, Esc behavior, Vim-style movement keys, line delete/copy/paste commands, search commands, and possibly save/quit command handling.

I agree that would be useful for people who live in Vim-style editors. For the first public preview I am focused on stabilizing the PowerShell 7 editor, console behavior, IntelliSense, diagnostics, packaging, and general reliability. But I will add optional Vim/vi keybinding support to the roadmap as a future editor-mode feature rather than making it the default behavior.

Thanks for input!

-Ron

6

I never knew who wrote the original ISE. Thank you for that. I will think about approaching him. I’d like to stabilize the app before I show it to the guy who started it all.

7

Thanks for sharing your links and sharing your code. I downloaded it when I got home and was ready to fully trust everything and install it. SO, I unzipped it and opened the Install.ps1 file and I get ready to run it. As I am reading through its code right off the bat, I see words like Telemetry and there’s a Switch Parameter to disable it, but then you force it to $false meaning Telemetry is enabled.

I think that words like that are going to make people jump to conclusions right away. Then I see that the Install.ps1 calls .\Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 and does appear to toggle the telemetry back off. (which is good) but then I see AppX packages are being used and almost a thousand lines of code in that file. So it’s going to take me some time to understand what this actually does now before I can trust it. I think you will find others having similar issues.

I really do love the idea of it, and I have high hopes that it all turns out to be legit, but for now I can’t just run the install script without knowing what it is doing. I’m not a huge fan of AppX packages and telemetry these days. I hope you’ll understand if it takes me a few weeks to provide any useful feedback. In advance thank you for taking on a project like this. I do appreciate the sentiment of it. I hope to be able to see it come to life. Maybe someone with more spare time can tell the rest of us that it’s safe and totally awesome.

8

Thank you for taking the time to even look at it!
Everything under the folder PowerShellStudio.Package is from Microsoft. I used the Microsoft Store Packaging process to handle the setup procedure for when I do have a working app, I can release it to the world in the App Store. I did some googling on those particular call outs. It appears that MS likes to keep tabs on everything everyone does, even if you do a sideload away from the MS Store.
I get where your coming from with regards to privacy. I will look into a standard install/setup procedure.
Just an FYI, I am planning on releasing this in the MS store for free just like the original PS ISE.
As a side note you can just run the “\PowerShellStudio\PowerShellStudio.Shell\bin\Release\net10.0-windows\PowerShellStudio.Shell.exe” in a sandbox so you can see how it looks and behaves. It uses the installed version of PowerShell as the Source of truth for the metadata in the editor. It should find all the installed versions of PS from the path and give you an option of what version you want to use.
There is a short delay in the startup, it will read every command/cmdlet and parameter from the powershell.exe when you first start the app. Depending on your system that could take a minute or 2. That will happen every time you update powershell. Once the metadata is loaded it is self contained in the app and the editor should be snappy and responsive. The editor was a particular challenge. If you do get a chance to use it, putting it through it paces would be of great help. I fully expect it to be a bit buggy as my testing is more Lab orientated and not real world.

Regards,
-Ron

9

Error: Could not acquire a developer license. For more information, see Sharing an app package locally (Windows Store apps) | Microsoft Learn

The install script is not doing anything, best I can tell it ties to get a certificate, which I guess is the license? Anyway I’m not ab;e to test the PowerShell Studio the installer fails with that error.

Since you yourself mentioned you have Visual Studio, can’t you package it as an installer? Instead of this method of trying to have PowerShell do soma AppX installer? Or just tell me the APPX package name and I can try to install it myself.

10

UPDATE:

Just running the following command worked for me. . .

## Where D:\DOWNLOAD is the path, or the root of the path where you extracted the ZIP file
$MSIXBundle = Get-ChildItem D:\DOWNLOAD\*.msixbundle -Recurse | Select-Object -ExpandProperty FullName
Add-AppxPackage -Path $MSIXBundle

11

My first feedback now that I can actually run it is. . .

• Higlighting CMDELTS in yellow font on a white background is not visible to my eyes

• I see when you do save it with a PS1 extension on the file the font colors fix themselves

12

Ack,
From Microsoft: Microsoft’s current MSIX guidance is: sideload packages must be signed, and the signing certificate must be trusted on the tester’s machine. Microsoft also notes that Visual Studio’s generated *_Test folder uses Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 for test installs, while normal MSIX/App Installer installs rely on a trusted package certificate

This is not good as users will either have to use a method like yours or put their machine into developer mode. I will ChatGPT my way to a better install solution. I will also fix the highlighting issue.

Regards,
-Ron

13

I think the step to trust the certificate did succeed. It just failed to find the msixbundle, so I just ran the Add-AppxPackage and pointed to that folder.

14

ok - I fixed the highlighting issue. If the new highlight is not good for you, I added a customize in the view menu.
I also added a Breakpoint gutter as I noticed inadvertent breakpoints when highlighting.
The new package is in GIT

15

That’s good to hear, I should still make it simpler.
I will work on the cleaner/easier install.

16

I need to update the GIT link but the Update post button is no longer visible. I was advised to change the app name.

New Link <== GIT

New Link <== Direct Download

1 Like
17

That’s a good working title. I forgot there was another product by that name because they are so darn expensive. Funny story there used to be add-ons you could make for ISE. Or there was a way to create add-ons for it. No one has made any in a long long time.

18

I have and still use ISE Steroids to create EXE’s for very large scripts. Works perfectly. Now if anybody can point me to a “working” tool to create EXE’s with PowerShell Core, I would love to have a look. I did try this one with no luck for large scripts:

19

I already answered and gave working example for building exe for both .Net and .Net core

I recommend you revisit this. I build exe’s effortlessly with Merge-Script

20

Thanks Doug. I actually never got that working. Did not want to keep bugging you/this forum. I came up with a workaround that did not include an EXE for core.