Better Help in PowerShell ISE

by Nov 17, 2021

There are still many professional scripters using the built-in PowerShell ISE editor, and it still is de facto a quick and reliable script development environment. If you do use PowerShell ISE, you may want to switch its built-in help system to use online help. Run this (inside PowerShell ISE):

 
PS> $psise.Options.UseLocalHelp = $false   

Once you run this, whenever you now click a command either in the script pane or the console part, and press F1, PowerShell ISE runs Get-Help for the command and adds the -Online switch parameter, so a browser opens and shows sophisticated and nicely formatted up-to-date online help.

You may want to remember the command above, though: if a command does not come with online help, it may still have local help files. Reverting the PowerShell ISE option to $true will then open local help.


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