Hi all,
I’ve been working on PS7 ScriptDesk for a while now, and I just released the latest version.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it before, PS7 ScriptDesk is a Windows desktop IDE built specifically for PowerShell 7.
The original idea was pretty simple: I missed the convenience of the old PowerShell ISE, but I wanted something built around PowerShell 7 from the ground up instead of trying to keep using a tool that was never designed for it.
It has grown quite a bit since then.
Right now PS7 ScriptDesk includes:
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PowerShell 7 editing and IntelliSense
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An embedded PowerShell console
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Script execution and debugging
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Variables and call-stack views
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Search and navigation tools
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Diagnostics and error information
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Exporting PowerShell scripts as standalone EXEs
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Help and contextual assistance
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Microsoft Store installation and updates
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Publishing PowerShell scripts as REST APIs
The REST API publishing work is now finished.
The idea is that you can write and test a normal PowerShell script, then have ScriptDesk handle a lot of the work required to expose it over HTTP without having to build a separate web application around it.
That includes the API host, input/output handling, OpenAPI support, security options, testing, and publishing.
A lot of the recent work has also been on the less exciting things that make a program nicer to actually use every day.
I’ve been cleaning up the UI, fixing inconsistent behavior, improving IntelliSense startup, working on the embedded console, improving Help, and trying to make the whole thing feel more like one coherent PowerShell environment instead of a collection of separate tools.
There is still plenty more planned.
The next major API work is:
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WebSocket publishing
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Server-Sent Events (SSE)
Those should make it possible to publish PowerShell scripts that need things like long-running connections, live progress updates, streaming output, and event-driven communication instead of just normal request/response REST calls.
I’m also continuing to work on:
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Making the embedded console behave as closely as possible to a normal persistent
pwshsession -
Improving the relationship between Run, the console, and the debugger
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Better standalone EXE publishing
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x64 and ARM64 publishing options
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Faster IntelliSense startup and metadata loading
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Better diagnostics
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Expanded contextual Help
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Continued UI cleanup and modernization
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Making published apps and APIs as self-contained as possible so end users don’t need Visual Studio, the .NET SDK, or a bunch of developer tools installed
I’m trying not to add features just because I can.
I’d rather build things that actually make sense for people who spend a lot of time in PowerShell.
That’s one of the reasons I wanted to post this here.
If you use PowerShell regularly, I’d really like to hear what you think.
What do you miss from the old PowerShell ISE?
What do you wish VS Code did differently for PowerShell?
And if you were designing a dedicated PowerShell 7 IDE today, what would you consider essential?
If you try PS7 ScriptDesk and something is awkward, confusing, broken, or just a bad idea, please tell me. I’d much rather hear criticism from people who actually use PowerShell than assume something is good because nobody complained.
GitHub:
It’s also available in the Microsoft Store. Just search for PS7 ScriptDesk.
Thanks to anyone who takes a look. I’m enjoying building it, and feedback from other PowerShell users is probably the most useful thing I can get.