How To Check Powershell Version On Windows 7, 8 & 10

Windows 10 offers Powershell 5.0 by default, but it gets updated automatically. It is always recommended to update Windows, and so, if you update Windows regularly, the latest Powershell builds will also be installed. However, if you are using an older version of Windows other than Windows 10, then also, you might want to find out what version of Powershell is installed at any instance.

How To Check Powershell Version On Windows 7, 8 & 10

So, today we will be talking about the various methods using which you can find out the Powershell version that is installed on your PC. Before we move on, here’s a table that provides the list of versions that are installed by default.

So, if you aren’t updating Windows, then you should have these versions of Powershell by default. Other than that, there are quite a few ways to find out the Powershell version.

Method 1: Via Powershell itself

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type powershell and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type $PSversionTable and hit enter.
• A list of details related to PowerShell will be displayed.
• Check the first entry against PSVersion.
• That value is the version of Powershell installed on your PC.

Method 2: Using Registry Editor

• On Windows 10, you can just search for regedit in the search bar and click on Registry Editor to open it. On older versions of Windows, however, you need to press Windows Key+R and then type regedit and hit enter to open it up.
• Once it is open, navigate to
  

• There will be a key called PowerShellVersion, and it will have a value that denotes the Powershell version that is installed on your PC.

Method 3: Via (Get-Host).Version

PowerShell has a concept known as hosts. A host is a program that is hosting the PowerShell engine. The PowerShell console or any code editor with an integrated terminal is PowerShell host. You can just run (Get-Host).Version and it will return a version number, but it may not always be the PowerShell engine version. Here are the steps to try this one.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type ‘powershell’ and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type (Get-Host).Version and hit enter.
• There will be some texts which mention Major, Minor, Build & Revision along with the values. So, adding a decimal point between the values will give you the version details.

Method 4: For Remote PCs

If you want to get the Powershell version details of a remote computer, you can try the something similar to Method 2, but with a little change.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type powershell and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type
  
  
  Invoke-Command -ComputerName 10.0.0.5 -ScriptBlock {(Get-Host} -Credential $cred

  1	Invoke-Command -ComputerName 10.0.0.5 -ScriptBlock {(Get-Host} -Credential $cred

  
  and, hit enter.

• There will be some texts which mention Major, Minor, Build & Revision along with the values. So, adding a decimal point between the values will give you the version details.

NOTE: The IP values may be different based on your own configuration, so if you know what you are doing, there shouldn’t be any issues.

Method 5: Via $host

This method is similar to Method 1, with one minor change. Here’s what you need to do.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type powershell and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type $host and hit enter.
• A list of details related to PowerShell will be displayed.
• Check the second entry, against Version.
• That value is the version of Powershell installed on your PC.

Method 6: Via $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

This one is similar to Method 3, with one minor change.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type powershell and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type $PSVersionTable.PSVersion and hit enter.
• There will be some texts which mention Major, Minor, Build & Revision along with the values. So, adding a decimal point between the values will give you the version details.

NOTE: This method is better that will always show the values related to the PowerShell engine itself.

Method 7: Same as Method 6, for Remote PCs

This one is similar to what we did for Method 4, but it is more accurate. Here’s how to try looking for the version details using this method.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type powershell and press Enter.
• A new PowerShell prompt will be open.
• In the newly opened window, type
  
  
  Invoke-Command -ComputerName 10.0.0.5 -ScriptBlock {$PSVersionTable.PSVersion} -Credential $cred

  1	Invoke-Command -ComputerName 10.0.0.5 -ScriptBlock {$PSVersionTable.PSVersion} -Credential $cred

  
  and, hit enter.
• There will be some texts which mention Major, Minor, Build & Revision along with the values. So, adding a decimal point between the values will give you the version details.

Method 8: Using CMD

When in doubt, rely on something that has been on Windows for a decade now- CMD. Here is how you can use CMD to check the Powershell version.

• Press Windows key + R to open up a Run command.
• Type cmd and press Enter.
• A window will open.
• In the newly opened window, type
  
  
  reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine /v PowerShellVersion

  1	reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine /v PowerShellVersion

  
  and, hit enter.
• It will directly show the Powershell version.

These are the various ways you can use to check the version of Powershell installed on your PC. However, we recommend using the preferred methods for more accurate results.