How to Check Powershell version on Windows 10, 8 and 7

Since Windows 10 ships with Windows PowerShell 5.0 by default, but the WU (Windows Update) component is supposed to automatically install a higher version (Powershell 5.1), some users have been looking for ways to determine which versions of Powershell they are using. at the moment.

If you enjoy doing things through a terminal with Powershell, it’s always a good idea to make sure your system is running the latest version. This is especially true if you are using a version of the operating system prior to Windows 10. Note that as of version 5.0, PowerShell has become much more powerful: you have much more control over Windows Server, and that also gives you more control over Exchange, Lync, and SQL-based servers.

Before I show you how to check your PowerShell version, here are the versions that come pre-installed by default depending on your version of Windows:

Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 - PowerShell version 5.0 ( it should get updated to 5.1 by Windows Update)

Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 - PowerShell version 4.0

Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 - PowerShell version 3.0

Windows7 SP1  and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 - PowerShell version 2.0

How to check your version of PowerShell

Now that you know what the default versions should look like, follow these steps for a quick guide to checking your current version of PowerShell. Please note that the steps below can be reproduced regardless of your Windows version.

1. Hurry Windows key + R to open a Run command. Then type “shell force” and press come in to open a new PowerShell prompt.
   

   

2. In the newly opened Powershell window, type the following command and press come in:

   $PSversionTable

3. You’ll see a list of details about your PowerShell utility. However, what interests us is PSVersion. In this case we already have the latest version as we have already installed all upcoming updates via WU.
   Note: Remember that you can also use get-host|Version of selected object or then $host.version as additional commands that retrieve your version of PowerShell.

If you have Windows 10 and your PS version is still 5.0.10586.63, you can update to the latest version by installing any pending update on Windows Update.