Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

When you first get started with PowerShell, don’t forget to run ‘Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned’ from the PowerShell prompt. If you try to run a script without doing that first, expect to see a message like the following:

File <path to file> cannot be loaded because execution of scripts is disabled on this system.  Please see “get-help about_signing” for more details.

The default execution policy for PowerShell is “Restricted” (commands only, not scripts).  The other execution policy options (in decreasing order of strictness) are:

  • AllSigned
  • RemoteSigned
  • Unrestricted

When I first tripped over this, the resource that helped most was a TechNet article.  Later, I found a blog post that was more specific about the execution policies.