How to enable scripts and scripting in PowerShell

One of the neat things about running anad campaign is that Google lets you know what keywords people are using in searches - which basically helps me figure out what, in part, to write about. "powershell enable scripts" comes up a LOT - which isn't surprising, I guess, since PowerShell disables script execution by default.

So, the quick and dirty answer, in the event that you've run across this post looking for such an answer: Run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned in the shell. You'll need to be a local admin, and be running the shell as admin (make sure it says "Administrator" in the window's title bar) for this to work. Pay attention to the output, too: If the local settings are being overridden by a Group Policy object, then you'll get a warning about that, letting you know that the command worked but won't do any good.

Now, you should probably read a few of the gory details. There are actually five execution policy levels you can set (run Help Set-ExecutionPolicy for a brief list, or help about_signing for a complete explanation). They are, in order of most-secure to least-secure:

So there you have it: A brief overview of the possible settings, and a fast path for getting scripts running in your copy of the shell. Running help about_signing will reveal all the other little details, like how to sign a script, how to make a self-signed certificate for use on your local machine, and so on.