In our previous tip we looked at sophisticated completion code that completed application paths. Collecting the completion values could take some time and had the potential of timing out IntelliSense. For completion values that are unlikely to change, it is much better to calculate the values once and then use cached values.
This way, installing the completers will cost a second or two, but after that you enjoy rapid IntelliSense:
# define a function without argument completer function Start-Software { param( [Parameter(Mandatory)] [string] $Path ) Start-Process -FilePath $Path } # define the code used for completing application paths $code = { } # calculate the completion values once, and reuse the values later # store results in a script-global variable $script:applicationCompleter = & { # get registered applications from registry $key = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\*", "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\*" [System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]$list = Get-ItemProperty -Path $key | Select-Object -ExpandProperty '(Default)' -ErrorAction Ignore # add applications found by Get-Command [System.Collections.Generic.List[string]]$commands = Get-Command -CommandType Application | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Source $list.AddRange($commands) # add descriptions and compose completionresult entries $list | # remove empty paths Where-Object { $_ } | # remove quotes and turn to lower case ForEach-Object { $_.Replace('"','').Trim().ToLower() } | # remove duplicate paths Sort-Object -Unique | ForEach-Object { # skip files that do not exist if ( (Test-Path -Path $_)) { # get file details $file = Get-Item -Path $_ # quote path if it has spaces $path = $_ if ($path -like '* *') { $path = "'$path'" } # make sure tooltip is not null $tooltip = [string]$file.VersionInfo.FileDescription if ([string]::IsNullOrEmpty($tooltip)) { $tooltip = $file.Name } # compose completion result [Management.Automation.CompletionResult]::new( # complete path $path, # show friendly text in IntelliSense menu ('{0} ({1})' -f $tooltip, $file.Name), # use file icon 'ProviderItem', # show file description $tooltip ) } } } # instead of complex code, simply return the cached results when needed $code = { $script:applicationCompleter } # tie the completer code to all applicable parameters of own or foreign commands Register-ArgumentCompleter -CommandName Start-Software -ParameterName Path -ScriptBlock $code Register-ArgumentCompleter -CommandName Start-Process -ParameterName FilePath -ScriptBlock $code
When you run the code above and then use the Start-Software or Start-Process commands, you get highly responsive IntelliSense. In contrast to built-in completion, you need to manually press CTRL+SPACE though.
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