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Scripts

Some of the scripts on this page are full scripts to accomplish a task, others are snippets you can copy/paste into scripts you're building.

Self-elevate a Powershell script

The following code will re-launch a Powershell session as an Administrator, using the same Powershell version as the non-elevated session that called it.

Self-elevate Powershell script
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## Determine which shell is running (PowerShell 7+ or Windows PowerShell)
$shellPath = if ($PSVersionTable.PSEdition -eq 'Core') {
    ## PowerShell 7+, use current process path (e.g., pwsh.exe)
    (Get-Process -Id $PID).Path
}
else {
    ## Windows PowerShell 5.1
    "$env:WINDIR\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe"
}

## Relaunch with elevation if not already running as admin
if (-not ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal] [Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole(
        [Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)) {

    Write-Warning "Relaunching as Administrator"
    Start-Process -FilePath $shellPath `
        -ArgumentList "-NoProfile", "-ExecutionPolicy Bypass", "-File `"$PSCommandPath`"" `
        -Verb RunAs
    exit
}

## Rest of your code here

Alternatively, you can add #Requires -RunAsAdministrator to the top of your script (before any <# documentation #> or [CmdletBinding()]/Param()). Check the Microsoft Requires documentation for more of these special comment lines.

Requires Administrator comment
#Requires -RunAsAdministrator

## Rest of your code here

Enable Powershell debugging

For each function you declare in your script where you have Write-Debug messages, add a [CmdletBinding()] before your Param() section:

function Get-Something {
    [CmdletBinding()]
    Param()
}

Then, call the script with -Debug. This works for -Verbose and Write-Verbose, too.