Forum Discussion
pwsh.exe Not recognized, even after adding path?
I'm a little reluctant to reply given this is about Windows Home as a lot of things remain unconfigurable and different when compared to Windows Enterprise and Professional (and their ilk.)
That said, it's important to note there are two "PowerShells":
- Windows PowerShell (5.1)
- PowerShell (7.3)
These aren't the same thing.
Windows PowerShell is the traditional version that ships as part of Windows operating systems - i.e. you don't need to install it. This version lives under C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\ and the shell's name is powershell.exe. This version is Windows-only.
PowerShell (no Windows prefixed) is the cross-platform version of PowerShell.
On Windows, and assuming a system installation has been performed, it lives under C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\ and the shell's name is pwsh.exe.
So, if you set your path to include C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\, you will find powershell.exe but not pwsh.exe, in which case the error is valid.
Here's a convenient landing page that summarises key differences between Windows PowerShell and PowerShell:
Cheers,
Lain
- felixozunaJul 12, 2024Copper Contributor
mine is vice versa
PS C:\Windows\System32> powershell --version
The application to execute does not exist: 'C:\Windows\System32\pwsh.dll'.
PS C:\Windows\System32> pwsh --version
PowerShell 7.4.3
PS C:\Windows\System32>Any clue how to fix it?
- LainRobertsonJul 12, 2024Silver Contributor
There's not enough information to know your starting position, and the error from the first command doesn't make sense to me, as pwsh.dll doesn't live in %windir%\System32 by default - at least not under PowerShell v7 and above (and it doesn't relate at all to Windows PowerShell).
Do you get anything back from running the following from a command prompt?
%windir%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command "[PSCustomObject] $PSVersionTable | Select-Object -Property PSVersion, PSEdition"
Example output
As an aside, "powershell --version" is an invalid command when referencing Windows PowerShell, and it's not the same at all as "pwsh --version". But that's unimportant in the context of the error you received.
Cheers,
Lain
- felixozunaJul 12, 2024Copper ContributorHi Lain , I appreciate your help, my powershell is fine as a matter of fact I've been researching the internet all over to find a solution to a problem that I am getting in Flutter I don't know if your familiar or not but thats how this issue started because the error reads like this [!] Windows Version (Problem detected with Windows
installation)
! Get-Process failed to complete
But thats on my text editor terminal because when I run Get Process on the actual Powershell Terminal it runs fine! Ive already checked all my paths and I even created a batch file to route back pwsh but I dont know , I guess I'll have to make more research, Thanks Anyway!
- StomachbuzzNov 20, 2022Copper ContributorOkay, gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up.