Windows PowerShell is the granddaddy of task automation and system administration for Windows users. Like the Windows Command prompt, it helps you manage a host of Windows settings right from your keyboard through the command shell.

If you’re a regular user, it makes sense to check and make sure you’ve the latest version of the PowerShell on your PC. So, here’s how you can check the PowerShell version of your Windows.

How to Check the PowerShell Version on Windows

By checking out the PowerShell version running on your Windows, you make sure that you’re using the latest features and settings that come with the regular Windows updates.

There are two ways to go about this. You can either use the PowerShell itself, or you can take help from the Windows Registry; we'll cover both of them one by one.

To check the PowerShell version of your PC from within PowerShell itself, you’ve got to launch it first. Head to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘powershell,’ and select the best match. In the PowerShell menu, type in the following command in the cmd and hit Enter: 

        $PSVersionTable

As soon as you do this, you’ll get a whole list of information about PowerShell. From there, look for the value called PSVersion, which will have the PowerShell version of your PC.

windows powershell

As you can see, the PowerShell version of our PC from above is 5.1.22621.1.

How to Check the PowerShell Version From the Registry

The Windows Registry is a centralized and hierarchical database that stores and holds low-level configuration information of your PC. If you would rather not launch the PowerShell, you can simply check its version from the Registry itself. Here’s how.

Head to the Start menu search bar, type in ‘registry,’ and select the best match. Now, from the Registry address bar above, head to the following path: 

        Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\3\PowerShellEngine

Here, look for the key value called PowerShellVersion. This will contain the PowerShell version that's running on your PC.

registry editor

Checking the PowerShell in Your Windows Computer

That’s it, folks. Do this, and you’ll get the information about the version of PowerShell you're running in your PC. Generally, the PowerShell gets updated on its own through the auto-update, but if it’s in a fix, you can get the latest version from the official Microsoft website.