Install ISESteroids Manually

If you cannot use Install-Module or Save-Module to install ISESteroids, you can always download it manually as a ZIP-File. There are separate downloads with and without a bundled PSExec tool.

If you cannot use Install-Module or Save-Module to install ISESteroids, you can always download it manually as a ZIP-File. There are separate downloads with and without a bundled PSExec tool.

Download as ZIP-File

To download the latest complete module ISESteroids, use the link below:

Download ISESteroids

ISESteroids comes with the Microsoft freeware tool PSExec bundled. PSExec is not required to run ISESteroids. It is required only if you like to test-drive PowerShell scripts in the local System account.

If you are not allowed to use PSExec, download ISESteroids without PSExec:

Download ISESteroids w/o PSExec

Please do not rename the downloaded folder. It must be called ISESteroids.

Unblock ZIP-File

Any manually downloaded file is automatically blocked by Windows. You must unblock the ZIP file before you unpack it, or unblock all extracted files after you unpacked the ZIP file.

Use Install.BAT

Unpack the ZIP file. Then double-click install.bat in the root folder of the unpacked ZIP file.

The batch file launches install.ps1 which then does two things:

  1. Unblock all files
  2. Copy the module to your personal PowerShell Module Folder

Once the batch file is done, you can run Start-Steroids from within the ISE editor to load ISESteroids.

If Start-Steroids is not available after running install.bat, then your personal PowerShell Module Folder may have been changed, and install.bat may have copied the module to the wrong location. In this case copy the module manually (described next).

Copy Manually

If you don’t want to run install.bat, or if the batch file did not work for you, follow these steps:

  1. Right-Click the ZIP-File, and in the context menu, choose Properties. A property page opens.

  2. Check Unblock in the lower right area to unblock the ZIP file, then click OK.

  3. Extract the ZIP file. Make sure the folder with the extracted content is called ISESteroids. If it has a different name, i.e. ISESteroids (3), rename it to ISESteroids

  4. Manually copy the folder ISESteroids to any of the folders listed in the variable $env:PSModulePath. On a default machine, these paths look like this:

    PS> $env:PSModulePath -split ';'
    C:\Users\USERNAME\Dokumente\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
    C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
    C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules
    

Launching

To launch ISESteroids, run this from inside your ISE editor:

Start-Steroids

If you’d like to rather keep the ISESteroids module on your personal USB stick, you can load it from there, or any other place you wish (the example below assumes you copied the ISESteroids module to D:\ISESteroids):

Import-Module -Name "D:\ISESteroids"

ISESteroids is an extension specifically designed for the ISE editor. It will neither load into the plain powershell.exe console nor into other editors such as VSCode. If you downloaded ISESteroids manually and receive error messages claiming that some DLLs could not be loaded, then you probably forgot to unblock the ZIP file before you unpacked it.