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about_Update_Notifications

Short description

Notifies users on startup of PowerShell that a new version of PowerShell has been released.

Long description

Beginning with PowerShell 7.0, PowerShell uses update notifications to alert users to the existence of updates to PowerShell. Every time PowerShell starts, PowerShell waits 3 seconds before it checks for updated versions. Since PowerShell waits 3 seconds before checking for updates and the notification message is displayed with the startup banner, you might not see the update notification until the next time you start PowerShell.

If update notification is enabled, it checks to see if it has been more than 24 hours since the last check for updates. If it has been more than 24 hours, it checks the appropriate endpoint for the latest version of PowerShell. PowerShell only displays the update notification when the release date of the newer version is more than 7 days old. This delay allows time for the publication of the various package types to become available before you are notified of the update.

By default, PowerShell subscribes to different notification channels depending on its version and branch. Generally Available (GA) versions of PowerShell only return notifications for updated GA releases. Preview and Release Candidate (RC) versions notify of updates to preview, RC, and GA releases.

Manage notification behavior

You can change the behavior of the update notification by setting the POWERSHELL_UPDATECHECK environment variable. The following values are supported:

  • Off turns off the update notification feature
  • Default is the same as not defining POWERSHELL_UPDATECHECK:
    • GA releases notify of updates to GA releases
    • Preview/RC releases notify of updates to GA and preview releases
  • LTS only notifies of updates to long-term-servicing (LTS) GA releases

You must set this environment variable before PowerShell starts. For more information about setting environment variables, see about_Environment_Variables.

Notification endpoints

PowerShell uses the following endpoints for determining the latest version available for each channel:

The update notification doesn't provide any way to automatically update PowerShell. In the future, there may be more instructions or capabilities to update from within PowerShell, but today, you should use the same install mechanism you used to install PowerShell to update it.

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