PowerShell is a command line shell that offers powerful features for management and configuration of Windows. On Windows 11, it is the default shell that is used in the Windows Terminal. Using this PowerShell, we can perform many tasks that are not easy to do otherwise or are completely impossible. For example, we can easily disable pre-installed Microsoft Store apps using PowerShell which is something that is no even allowed using the Windows settings. And now PowerShell is also available for other operating systems through an open-source project at https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell.
There are many ways of launching PowerShell on Windows. Here are five of these methods:
1. Using context-menu
On Windows 11, we can launch PowerShell from the right-click context menu anywhere on the system – on the Windows desktop or inside any of the folders. For this, we have to first press the Shift key and then right-click anywhere on the desktop. Then we can choose Open PowerShell window here from the context-menu. This menu item is not visible until we press the Shift key.
2. Using the Run command
The age old Run command has been available on Windows 11 too. We can use this command to launch any application on the system including PowerShell. For launching PowerShell using the Run command, we have to first launch the Run dialog using the hotkey Win+R. We can type powershell inside the Run dialog and press Enter to launch PowerShell.
3. Using Terminal
Terminal is the new shell for Windows 11. It is highly customizable and supports some of the commands that were available only on Linux systems. For example, you can use the command ls to list the sub-directory using Terminal on Windows 11. When we launch Terminal on Windows 11, it uses PowerShell inside the Terminal by default. So by launching Terminal, we are actually launching PowerShell. For launching PowerShell, we can right-click anywhere on the desktop or inside a folder and choose Open in Windows Terminal from there.
4. Using the cmd.exe shell
The familiar command prompt for Windows, cmd.exe shell, can also be used for launching other applications including PowerShell. First you have to launch command prompt window by pressing Win+R, typing cmd.exe and pressing the Enter key. In the command prompt, you can give the command powershell to launch PowerShell.
5. Using a PowerShell script
We can use a PowerShell script to launch PowerShell window. For this, we have to first launch Windows Notepad and type in the following lines in it:
Write-Host "PowerShell Script by TrishTech.com" PowerShell -NoExit -NoLogo
After typing the above lines, you have to save it as “LaunchPowerShell.ps1” file. The file extension has to be PS1 so that Windows recognizes it as a PowerShell script. Whenever you launch this script, it will present you the usual PowerShell window.