Edit

Modules with compatible PowerShell Editions

  • Article

Starting with version 5.1, PowerShell is available in different editions, which denote varying feature sets and platform compatibility.

  • Desktop Edition: Built on .NET Framework, applies to Windows PowerShell v4.0 and below as well as Windows PowerShell 5.1 on Windows Desktop, Windows Server, Windows Server Core and most other Windows editions.
  • Core Edition: Built on .NET Core, applies to PowerShell 6.0 and above as well as Windows PowerShell 5.1 on reduced footprint Windows Editions such as Windows IoT and Windows Nano Server.

For more information on PowerShell editions, see about_PowerShell_Editions.

Declaring compatible editions

Module authors can declare their modules to be compatible with one or more PowerShell editions using the CompatiblePSEditions module manifest key. This key is only supported on PowerShell 5.1 or later.

Note

Once a module manifest is specified with the CompatiblePSEditions key or uses the $PSEdition variable, it can not be imported on PowerShell v4 or lower.

New-ModuleManifest -Path .\TestModuleWithEdition.psd1 -CompatiblePSEditions Desktop,Core -PowerShellVersion 5.1
$ModuleInfo = Test-ModuleManifest -Path .\TestModuleWithEdition.psd1
$ModuleInfo.CompatiblePSEditions

Desktop
Core

$ModuleInfo | Get-Member CompatiblePSEditions

   TypeName: System.Management.Automation.PSModuleInfo

Name                 MemberType Definition
----                 ---------- ----------
CompatiblePSEditions Property   System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable[string] CompatiblePSEditions {get;}

When getting a list of available modules, you can filter the list by PowerShell edition.

Get-Module -ListAvailable -PSEdition Desktop

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

ModuleType Version    Name                                ExportedCommands
---------- -------    ----                                ----------------
Manifest   1.0        ModuleWithPSEditions

Get-Module -ListAvailable -PSEdition Core | % CompatiblePSEditions

Desktop
Core

Beginning in PowerShell 6, the CompatiblePSEditions value is used to decide if a module is compatible when modules are imported from $env:windir\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules. This behavior only applies to Windows. Outside of this scenario, the value is only used as metadata.

Finding compatible modules

PowerShell Gallery users can find the list of modules supported on a specific PowerShell Edition using tags PSEdition_Desktop and PSEdition_Core.

Modules without PSEdition_Desktop and PSEdition_Core tags are considered to work fine on PowerShell Desktop editions.

# Find modules supported on PowerShell Desktop edition
Find-Module -Tag PSEdition_Desktop

# Find modules supported on PowerShell Core editions
Find-Module -Tag PSEdition_Core

Targeting multiple editions

Module authors can publish a single module targeting to either or both PowerShell editions (Desktop and Core).

A single module can work on both Desktop and Core editions, in that module author has to add required logic in either RootModule or in the module manifest using $PSEdition variable. Modules can have two sets of compiled DLLs targeting both CoreCLR and FullCLR. Here are the packaging options with logic for loading proper DLLs.

Option 1: Packaging a module for targeting multiple versions and multiple editions of PowerShell

Module folder contents

  • Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.BuiltinRules.dll
  • Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.dll
  • PSScriptAnalyzer.psd1
  • PSScriptAnalyzer.psm1
  • ScriptAnalyzer.format.ps1xml
  • ScriptAnalyzer.types.ps1xml
  • coreclr\Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.BuiltinRules.dll
  • coreclr\Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.dll
  • en-US\about_PSScriptAnalyzer.help.txt
  • en-US\Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.dll-Help.xml
  • PSv3\Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.BuiltinRules.dll
  • PSv3\Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.dll
  • Settings\CmdletDesign.psd1
  • Settings\DSC.psd1
  • Settings\ScriptFunctions.psd1
  • Settings\ScriptingStyle.psd1
  • Settings\ScriptSecurity.psd1

Contents of PSScriptAnalyzer.psd1 file

@{

# Author of this module
Author = 'Microsoft Corporation'

# Script module or binary module file associated with this manifest.
RootModule = 'PSScriptAnalyzer.psm1'

# Version number of this module.
ModuleVersion = '1.6.1'

# ---
}

Below logic loads the required assemblies depending on the current edition or version.

Contents of PSScriptAnalyzer.psm1 file:

#
# Script module for module 'PSScriptAnalyzer'
#
Set-StrictMode -Version Latest

# Set up some helper variables to make it easier to work with the module
$PSModule = $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Module
$PSModuleRoot = $PSModule.ModuleBase

# Import the appropriate nested binary module based on the current PowerShell version
$binaryModuleRoot = $PSModuleRoot


if (($PSVersionTable.Keys -contains "PSEdition") -and ($PSVersionTable.PSEdition -ne 'Desktop')) {
    $binaryModuleRoot = Join-Path -Path $PSModuleRoot -ChildPath 'coreclr'
}
else
{
    if ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion -lt [Version]'5.0')
    {
        $binaryModuleRoot = Join-Path -Path $PSModuleRoot -ChildPath 'PSv3'
    }
}

$binaryModulePath = Join-Path -Path $binaryModuleRoot -ChildPath 'Microsoft.Windows.PowerShell.ScriptAnalyzer.dll'
$binaryModule = Import-Module -Name $binaryModulePath -PassThru

# When the module is unloaded, remove the nested binary module that was loaded with it
$PSModule.OnRemove = {
    Remove-Module -ModuleInfo $binaryModule
}

Option 2: Use $PSEdition variable in the PSD1 file to load the proper DLLs

In PS 5.1 or newer, $PSEdition global variable is allowed in the module manifest file. Using this variable, module author can specify the conditional values in the module manifest file. $PSEdition variable can be referenced in restricted language mode or a Data section.

Sample module manifest file with CompatiblePSEditions key.

@{
    # Script module or binary module file associated with this manifest.
    RootModule = if($PSEdition -eq 'Core')
    {
        'coreclr\MyCoreClrRM.dll'
    }
    else # Desktop
    {
        'clr\MyFullClrRM.dll'
    }

    # Supported PSEditions
    CompatiblePSEditions = 'Desktop', 'Core'

    # Modules to import as nested modules of the module specified in RootModule/ModuleToProcess
    NestedModules = if($PSEdition -eq 'Core')
    {
        'coreclr\MyCoreClrNM1.dll',
        'coreclr\MyCoreClrNM2.dll'
    }
    else # Desktop
    {
        'clr\MyFullClrNM1.dll',
        'clr\MyFullClrNM2.dll'
    }
}

Module contents

  • ModuleWithEditions\ModuleWithEditions.psd1
  • ModuleWithEditions\clr\MyFullClrNM1.dll
  • ModuleWithEditions\clr\MyFullClrNM2.dll
  • ModuleWithEditions\clr\MyFullClrRM.dll
  • ModuleWithEditions\coreclr\MyCoreClrNM1.dll
  • ModuleWithEditions\coreclr\MyCoreClrNM2.dll
  • ModuleWithEditions\coreclr\MyCoreClrRM.dll

More details

Scripts with PSEditions

PSEditions support on PowerShellGallery

Update module manifest

about_PowerShell_Editions