How do I install the PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX)

Question

I'm on Windows 8.1, and fairly new to Windows-side development. I've had PSCX suggested to me, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to install PSCX 3.1 on Windows 8.1 and make the cmdlets work when I type them. (To put it frankly.)

I've downloaded and run the .msi for 3.1 from the website; as far as I can tell, it ran successfully and exited. However, running, for instance, Expand-Archive, fails.

Get-Module -ListAvailable doesn't show anything about PSCX. I checked my WindowsPowerShell directory (in C:\Users\ELLIOTTCABLE\Documents\WindowsPowerShell), there's no Modules directory in there. Just my PS1 profile.

Where, if anywhere, has the .msi installed this; and how do I get PowerShell to recognize it? (My setup is very generic, nothing strange going on on my end afaict. Again, new to Windows.)

Solution 1

After upgrading to Windows 8.1 from 7 (via 8.0) I found the same issue.

However it turns out Pscx is installed here: C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerShell Community Extensions\Pscx3\Pscx\ (in my case as I've got Pscx 3.1 installed now).

And there's a PSModulePath environment variable that points to C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\

The environment variable just needs to be updated to add the path to Pscx. I guess either something reset the path on upgrade or moved Pscx out of the system32 location.

See also https://pscx.codeplex.com/workitem/34912

Solution 2

I also had experienced this issue after installing the latest 3.2 version. However, I was able to get over the issue by following these steps:

1. copy the "Pscx" folder located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\PowerShell Community Extensions\Pscx3".
2. Paste this folder in the $PSHome location (usually it is: "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules").
3. Run Import-Module Pscx
4. You are done! Just run an example command to verify if its working (e.g. [hex] 5123123).

Comments

[Fijat Ogur]

That works for older versions; but the current version is an .msi ... and it doesn't seem to do anything. Am I doing something wrong?

[Fazer87]

All I can recommend is you searh your pc for *.psd1 and take a copy of it to your modules folder ready for import. I've just downloaded and installed the latest version (was running 2.1 before) and it seemed t work ok