About Group Policy Settings
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Describes the Group Policy settings for Windows PowerShell
LONG DESCRIPTION
Windows PowerShell includes Group Policy settings to help you define consistent option values for servers in an enterprise environment.
The Windows PowerShell Group Policy settings are in the following Group Policy paths:
Computer Configuration\
Administrative Templates\
Windows Components\
Windows PowerShell
User Configuration\
Administrative Templates\
Windows Components\
Windows PowerShell
Group policy settings in the User Configuration path take precedence over Group Policy settings in the Computer Configuration path.
The policies are as follows:
- Turn on Script Execution: Sets the Windows PowerShell execution policy.
- Turn on Module Logging: Sets the LogPipelineExecutionDetails property of modules.
- Set the default source path for
Update-Help: Sets the source for Updatable Help to a directory, not the Internet.
To download spreadsheets that list all of the Group Policy settings for each version of Windows, see Group Policy Settings Reference for Windows and Windows Server in the Microsoft Download Center.
TURN ON SCRIPT EXECUTION
The "Turn on Script Execution" policy setting sets the execution policy for computers and users, which determines which scripts are permitted to run.
If you enable the policy setting, you can select from among the following policy settings.
"Allow only signed scripts" allows scripts to execute only if they are signed by a trusted publisher. This policy setting is equivalent to the AllSigned execution policy.
"Allow local scripts and remote signed scripts" allows all local scripts to run. Scripts that originate from the Internet must be signed by a trusted publisher. This policy setting is equivalent to the RemoteSigned execution policy.
"Allow all scripts" allows all scripts to run. This policy setting is equivalent to the Unrestricted execution policy.
If you disable this policy setting, no scripts are allowed to run. This policy setting is equivalent to the Restricted execution policy.
If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, the execution policy
that is set for the computer or user by the Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet
determines whether scripts are permitted to run. The default value is
Restricted.
For more information, see about_Execution_Policies.
TURN ON MODULE LOGGING
The "Turn on Module Logging" policy setting turns on logging for selected Windows PowerShell modules. The setting is effective in all sessions on all affected computers.
If you enable this policy setting and specify one or more modules, pipeline execution events for the specified modules are recorded in the Windows PowerShell log in Event Viewer.
If you disable this policy setting, logging of execution events is disabled for all Windows PowerShell modules.
If this policy setting is not configured, the LogPipelineExecutionDetails property of each module or snap-in determines whether the execution events of a module or snap-in are logged. By default, the LogPipelineExecutionDetails property of all modules and snap-ins is set to False.
To turn on module logging for a module, use the following command format. The module must be imported into the session and the setting is effective only in the current session.
Import-Module <Module-Name>
(Get-Module <Module-Name>).LogPipelineExecutionDetails = $true
To turn on module logging for all sessions on a particular computer, add the previous commands to the 'All Users' Windows PowerShell profile ($Profile.AllUsersAllHosts).
For more information about module logging, see about_Modules.
SET THE DEFAULT SOURCE PATH FOR UPDATE-HELP
The "Set the Default Source Path for Update-Help" policy setting sets a
default value for the SourcePath parameter of the Update-Help cmdlet. This
setting prevents users from using the Update-Help cmdlet to download help
files from the Internet.
NOTE: The "Set the default source path for Update-Help" Group Policy setting appears under 'Computer Configuration' and 'User Configuration'. However, only the Group Policy setting under 'Computer Configuration' is effective. The Group Policy setting under 'User Configuration' is ignored.
The Update-Help cmdlet downloads and installs the newest help files for
Windows PowerShell modules and installs them on the computer. By default,
Update-Help downloads new help files from an Internet location specified by
the module.
However, you can use the Save-Help cmdlet to download the newest help files to
a file system location, such as a network share, and then use the Update-Help
cmdlet to get the help files from the file system location and install them on
the computer. The SourcePath parameter of the Update-Help cmdlet specifies
the file system location.
By providing a default value for the SourcePath parameter, this Group Policy
setting implicitly adds the SourcePath parameter to all Update-Help
commands.
Users can override the particular file system location specified as the
default value by entering a different file system location. But they cannot
remove the SourcePath parameter from the Update-Help command.
If you enable this policy setting, you can specify a default value for the SourcePath parameter. Enter a file system location.
If this policy setting is disabled or not configured, there is no default
value for the SourcePath parameter of the Update-Help cmdlet. Users can
download help from the Internet or from any file system location.
For more information, see about_Updatable_Help.
KEYWORDS
about_Group_Policies about_GroupPolicy