PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio
This page contains the changelog for both PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio and PowerShell Pro Tools for Visual Studio.
Fixed a packaging issue with concatenated strings and Join-Path
Fixed an issue where the extension would not activate in VS 2017
Fixed an issue where the variables window would not work if opened after the main extension package activated
Fixed an issue where the variables window would not work due to a missing license file in the build process.
Fixed an issue where bundling form resources would not work correctly
Fixed an issue with Out-GridView
Added Modules window
Improved performance of the variables window
Added Variables window
Consolidated PowerShell tools windows into a PowerShell sub menu
Fixed an issue where the bundler could throw an error and fail when bundling certain modules.
Fixed an issue where the packager would throw an error about NewtonSoft.Json when bundling modules.
Added Execute Selection button to PowerShell Toolbar
Removed a dependency on NewtonSoft.Json that was causing a problem when compiling scripts to executables
Fixed an issue with packaging PS7 scripts containing a ternary operator
Fixed an issue where resource files would not be generated when paths contained periods
Fixed an issue with packaging XAML files.
Fixed an issue with activation caching
Fixed an issue with ImageList controls in the form designer
Fixed an issue with packaging PowerCLI
Fixed an issue where packaging modules could cause an Access Denied error
Added subscription activation caching to prevent excessive web requests
Fixed an issue where packaging would use the wrong PowerShell version when looking up modules causing certain modules to fail to load
Fixed an issue where the extension would fail to install due to a expired certificate
Added support for building .NET Core based Windows Services with PowerShell 7
Fixed an issue where packaging would not work with modules that contained a C# .cs file (like MSAL.PS)
Fixed an issue with subscription licenses not displaying correctly.
Fixes an issue where stepping through a Switch would fail to step properly.
Fixed an issue where stepping through a ForEach loop would fail to step properly
Fixed an issue where non-subscription licenses would show they were only licensed for 1 week when this wasn't actually the case.
Fixed an issue where constrained language mode would fail silently.
Fixed an issue with the locals and watch window when using PowerShell 7.1
Fixed an issue where copy and paste would not work as expected when debugging with the REPL window open
Fix an issue with subscription registration.
Fixed an issue where script analysis could fail after a script was saved with syntax errors
Fixed an issue with the WPF event binding service where it would fail silently when an event handler was added to a control without a name.
Fixed an issue with the WPF event binding service where it would generate functions with unapproved verbs
Added support for PowerShell Pro Tools subscriptions
Fixed an issue where variable expansion would not work correctly for objects that were IEnumerable but did not generic
Fixed an issue where expanding a collection in the variable window with a single value wouldn't work.
Fixed an issue where the PowerShell version drop down wouldn't show the current version
Fixed an issue where debugging wouldn't stop on breakpoints in PowerShell 7.1
Removed the Reset PowerShell Session option because it caused many problems when enabled.
Fixed an issue where the analysis service could fail to start
Fixed an issue where the packager could fail when packaging certain Windows PowerShell modules.
Fixed an issue with packaging the NTFSSecurity module
Fixed an issue where script analysis would fail to start due to a threading issue
Fixed an issue where the packager would state that there was unreachable code detected
Changed
Fixed an issue where packaging would fail with a duplicate assembly error
Changed
Fixed an issue where building with certain project types could result in a Visual Studio crash.
Changed
Fixed an issue with bundling modules that contained System.Management.Automation.dll
Fixed an issue with bundling modules that contained RootModules nested in a folder
Changed
Improve extension startup performance
Changed
Fixed a null reference exception when activating the extension
Added
Go to definition support for commands and functions
Changed
Fixed an issue where the error list line number would be off by one
Fixed an issue with bundling the ActiveDirectory module in PowerShell 7 standalone executables
Changed
Fixed an issue where compiling a PowerShell 7 executable that included WinForms wouldn't work if Hide Console Window was unchecked.
Changed
Fixed an issue where parse errors would not be highlighed
Fixed an issue where clicking a parse or analysis error in the error list would throw an exception
Fixed an issue with the NumericDropDown Windows Form component would not be generated correctly.
Changed
Fixed an issue with packaging Windows Forms applications with PS7
Added
Added support for packaging the 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 PowerShell SDK
Changed
Default install of PowerShell Pro Tools trial license
Changed
Fixed an issue where script analyzer support could cause a hang when changing languages or starting Visual Studio
Changed
Reverting changes in version 5.5.4 that resulted in commands not executing correctly
Fixed an issue with PSScriptAnaylzer support
Changed
Fixed an issue where parser errors would be shown for PS7’s new features
Changed
Fixed an issue where the locals window wouldn’t display variables
Changed
Fixed an issue where ListView, TreeView and ContextMenu child items would not work in PSScriptPad Fixed an issue where packaging would fail if a script ended in a comment Fixed an issue where packaging would fail if a script was too large Fixed an issue where the opacity setting wouldn’t work on form controls on certain systems. Fixed an issue where script analysis would highlight too much of the script when there was an issue Fixed an issue where script analysis quickfix items would replace too much of the script
Changed
Fixed an issue where packaging would fail for projects created with 5.4.9 or older
Added
Added support for packaging PowerShell 7 executables
Added experimental support for packaging Linux and OSX executables
Changed
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash if PSScriptAnalyzer was enabled
Fixed an issue where QuickFix items could cause a crash when being executed
Changed
Fixed a crash that could happen when PSScriptAnalyzer was enabled
Fixed an issue that would cause breakpoints to not be hit when lines were indented
Changed
Fixed an issue where removing a breakpoint would not clear the breakpoint in PowerShell
Fixed an issue where output could be written out of order
Changed
Fixed an issue that was causing hangs when running WinForm scripts.
Changed
Fixed an issue where stopping the debugger could prevent it from starting again
Fixed an issue where using statements in a script would prevent it from packaging correctly
Add logging to the packaging system to better diagnose issues.
5.4.5 – 2020-4-27
Changed
Fixed an issue with variables not expanding properly in the Locals and Watch windows.
Fixed an issue with an exception being shown during startup due to the Analysis Service not being ready
Fixed an issue with the output pane no longer showing script output
Fixed an issue where terminating errors would not be shown
Changed
Removed the experimental console for now as it was causing unexpected issues for some users.
Changed
Fixed an issue where the extension would allocate a console window on startup
Known Issues
The console window may be allocated outside of Visual Studio and the PowerShell Console (Experimental) window will cause VS to become unresponsive.
Changed
Fixed an issue with installation into Visual Studio 2017
Added
Added a new PowerShell Console window. Click View->Other Windows->PowerShell Console to open it.
Changed
Removed dependency on gRPC to reduce hangs when using PoshTools
Improved performance of the Attach to Process dialog when PoshTools is installed
Fixed icons for PowerShell-based nodes in the solution explorer
Added
– Added a $Service object to OnStart\OnStop for packaged services to access the ServiceBase for the service – Added $ProcessArgs and $ServiceArgs variables to the runspace for packaged services
Changed
– Fixed an issue where Execute Selection would not show up in folder view – Fixed an issue where $PSScriptRoot would not work for packaged services – Updated signing certificate
Changed– Fixed an issue where the solution directory would not be set when opening a solution or switching PowerShell versions– Fixed issue where the $dte variable may not be present– Fixed an issue where the service process would not log
– Added a Script property to the debug settings to allow for running a specific script rather than the currently open script
– Fixed an issue where a failed packaging build would not show the error message in the output
Added a PowerShell Windows Forms Project template
Fixed an issue when setting the platform for a packaged script
Fixed an issue when setting the “PackagePowerShell” setting for a packaged script
Fixed a syntax error with the Windows Forms item template
Fixed issue with resource generation in Visual Studio Windows Forms Designer
Fixed issue where packaged applications wouldn’t work with arguments with spaces
No longer requires a trial key
Depending on how the PowerShell Pro Tools extension was loaded an error would be shown and it would fail to loaded.
Resources, such as images and icons, would not be bundled correctly when bundling a WinForm control.
If you opened the WinForm designer before installing your license, then installed a license and then opened the WinForm designer, you would need to restart Visual Studio for the license to take effect.
An issue with the marketplace was causing a failure when upgrading to 5.2.1. Republished as 5.2.2 and it seems to have resolved it.
License activation could run more than once causing the product to think that it was unlicensed.
You can now specify the platform (x64\x86) when packaging executables.
There was a race condition between the PowerShell host starting and the gRPC client being available to set the location of the REPL window. This would cause a crash when VS was starting and loading a PS solution at the same time.
When selecting PS Script Analyzer rules, there could be a condition where a directory needed to store the settings would not exist. This directory is now created before attempting to save the settings.
In the General options page, you can now select STA mode for Windows PowerShell. This primarily affects Windows Forms controls, like the web browser control, that rely on COM.
Command-line tools that used the error stream (like git.exe) would cause a hang in the PowerShell debugger.
The PoshTools extension was loading aggressively. It would load even when no PowerShell solution or interactive window was open.
When Visual Studio was loading, the script analyzer would attempt to analyze “null” file resulting in an error.
The Paste As command was replaced with Convert to PowerShell.
When the PowerShell extension would initialize and PowerShell v3 or v4 was being used, the extension would cause the IDE to hang.
The error “Attaching the PowerShell Debug Engine debugger to Process unknown process” would be shown when attempting to debug.
The debugger would not break on a breakpoint set in Visual Studio 2017.
PowerShell Pro Tools now uses PSScriptAnalyzer to analyze all the scripts within your solution in the background. You will still see tags on the active file, but the error list will also report any issues with any PSM1 or PS1 files in your solution.
You can now modify PSScriptAnalyzer settings directly in the PowerShell Tools Options. Go to the Analysis page to turn on Analysis, Solution Wide Analysis, enable specific levels or even turn off specific rules.
The PowerShell Pro Tools host could fail to initialize so startup operations would not be performed putting the extension in an unknown state. The extension has been fixed to load the host consistenlty.
If the Visual Code PowerShell Host would crash, PowerShell Pro Tools would not reconnect to the PowerShell process. This would prevent it from working.
