Installing PowerShell 7 on Windows, Debian and RHEL, the way Microsoft documents it

windows - 2026-09-29

PowerShell 7 (pwsh) is the cross-platform PowerShell. On Windows, it installs next to Windows PowerShell 5.1 (powershell.exe) rather than replacing it. On Linux, Microsoft's preferred source is its own package repository, packages.microsoft.com ("PMC"). Commands below are from Microsoft Learn, current for PowerShell 7.6 (LTS).

Windows: WinGet

winget search --id Microsoft.PowerShell --exact
winget install --id Microsoft.PowerShell --source winget

Since 7.6, WinGet installs the MSIX package by default. That install is per user, and it doesn't support incoming PowerShell remoting or all-users profiles. From 7.7, MSIX is the only package WinGet offers. For a server or an all-users install, ask for the MSI while it still exists:

winget install --id Microsoft.PowerShell --source winget --installer-type wix

Upgrade and remove with the same tool:

winget upgrade --id Microsoft.PowerShell
winget uninstall --id Microsoft.PowerShell

WinGet ships with Windows 11. On Windows Server, only Server 2025 with Desktop Experience has it; for other servers, use the MSI.

Debian 12 and 13: the Microsoft repository

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y wget
source /etc/os-release
wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/$VERSION_ID/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb   # adds the repository and its signing key
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y powershell

Remove it with sudo apt-get remove powershell.

RHEL 8, 9 and 10: the same repository, through dnf

source /etc/os-release
majorver=${VERSION_ID%.*}                  # 9.6 -> 9
curl -sSL -O https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/$majorver/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
sudo rpm -i packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
rm packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
sudo dnf install -y powershell

Remove it with sudo dnf remove powershell. Microsoft's script also runs a full sudo dnf update before the install; that step is optional.

On both Linux distributions, the repository package keeps pwsh updated with the rest of the system (apt upgrade, dnf upgrade). If there's no repository for your release, Microsoft's fallback is the .deb or .rpm from the GitHub releases.

Check it

pwsh -NoLogo -Command '"$($PSVersionTable.PSVersion)  $PSHOME"'

$PSHOME also tells you how it was installed:

`$PSHOME`	Installed by
`C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7`	MSI
`C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\...`	MSIX (WinGet's default since 7.6, or the Store)
`/opt/microsoft/powershell/7`	the `.deb` or `.rpm` package

On Linux, profiles and modules follow XDG: ~/.config/powershell/ and ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules.

Sources

Microsoft Learn: install PowerShell 7 on Windows, Debian and RHEL, all current for 7.6.
The five repository config packages (config/debian/{12,13} and config/rhel/{8,9,10}) all return HTTP 200 from packages.microsoft.com. The installs themselves weren't run here.

Created 2026-09-29T13:25:00+02:00 · Edit