Install AWSPowerShell on Windows PowerShell (legacy) - Amazon Tools for PowerShell (version 5)
Enable Script ExecutionVersioningUpdating Amazon Tools for PowerShell
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Version 5 (V5) of the Amazon Tools for PowerShell has been released!

For information about breaking changes and migrating your applications, see the migration topic.

Install AWSPowerShell on Windows PowerShell (legacy)

For general information about installing the Amazon Tools for PowerShell on Windows, including prerequisites and other options, see the parent topic.

For information about the Tools for PowerShell that are pre-installed on Amazon CloudShell, see Installed on CloudShell.

Note

AWSPowerShell is not the recommended method for installing the Amazon Tools for PowerShell. For the recommended method, see Install AWS.Tools (recommended) instead.

You can install the Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell in one of two ways:

  • Downloading the module from AWSPowerShell.zip and extracting it in one of the module directories. You can discover your module directories by displaying the value of the PSModulePath environment variable.

    Warning

    After downloading the ZIP file and before extracting the contents, you might need to unblock it. This is typically done by opening the properties of the file, viewing the General tab, and selecting the Unblock checkbox if one exists.

    If the ZIP file needs to be unblocked but you don't do so, you might receive errors similar to the following: "Import-Module : Could not load file or assembly".

  • Installing from the PowerShell Gallery using the Install-Module cmdlet as described in the following procedure.

To install AWSPowerShell from the PowerShell Gallery using the Install-Module cmdlet

You can install the AWSPowerShell from the PowerShell Gallery if you are running PowerShell 5.0 or later, or have installed PowerShellGet on PowerShell 3 or later. You can install and update AWSPowerShell from Microsoft's PowerShell Gallery by running the following command.

 PS > Install-Module -Name AWSPowerShell

To load the AWSPowerShell module into a PowerShell session automatically, add the previous import-module cmdlet to your PowerShell profile. For more information about editing your PowerShell profile, see About Profiles in the PowerShell documentation.

Enable Script Execution

To load the Amazon Tools for PowerShell modules, you must enable PowerShell script execution. To enable script execution, run the Set-ExecutionPolicy cmdlet to set a policy of RemoteSigned. For more information, see About Execution Policies on the Microsoft Technet website.

Note

This is a requirement only for computers that are running Windows. The ExecutionPolicy security restriction is not present on other operating systems.

To enable script execution

  1. Administrator rights are required to set the execution policy. If you are not logged in as a user with administrator rights, open a PowerShell session as Administrator. Choose Start, and then choose All Programs. Choose Accessories, and then choose Windows PowerShell. Right-click Windows PowerShell, and on the context menu, choose Run as administrator.

  2. At the command prompt, enter the following.

    PS > Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Note

On a 64-bit system, you must do this separately for the 32-bit version of PowerShell, Windows PowerShell (x86).

If you don't have the execution policy set correctly, PowerShell shows the following error whenever you try to run a script, such as your profile.

File C:\Users\username\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution
 of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-help about_signing" for more details.
At line:1 char:2
+ . <<<<  'C:\Users\username\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1'
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException

The Tools for Windows PowerShell installer automatically updates the PSModulePath to include the location of the directory that contains the AWSPowerShell module.

Because the PSModulePath includes the location of the Amazon module's directory, the Get-Module -ListAvailable cmdlet shows the module.

PS > Get-Module -ListAvailable

ModuleType Name                      ExportedCommands
---------- ----                      ----------------
Manifest   AppLocker                 {}
Manifest   BitsTransfer              {}
Manifest   PSDiagnostics             {}
Manifest   TroubleshootingPack       {}
Manifest   AWSPowerShell             {Update-EBApplicationVersion, Set-DPStatus, Remove-IAMGroupPol...

Versioning

Amazon releases new versions of the Amazon Tools for PowerShell periodically to support new Amazon services and features. To determine the version of the Tools that you have installed, run the Get-AWSPowerShellVersion cmdlet.

For example:

PS > Get-AWSPowerShellVersion

AWS Tools for PowerShell
Version 5.0.3
Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon Web Services SDK for .NET
Core Runtime Version 4.0.0.13
Copyright Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Release notes: https://github.com/aws/aws-tools-for-powershell/blob/main/changelogs/CHANGELOG.ALL.md

This software includes third party software subject to the following copyrights:
- Logging from log4net, Apache License
[http://logging.apache.org/log4net/license.html]

You can also add the -ListServiceVersionInfo parameter to a Get-AWSPowerShellVersion command to see a list of the Amazon services that are supported in the current version of the tools. If you use the modularized AWS.Tools.* option, only the modules that you currently have imported are displayed.

For example:

PS > Get-AWSPowerShellVersion -ListServiceVersionInfo
...

Service                            Noun Prefix Module Name                       SDK
                                                                                 Assembly
                                                                                 Version
-------                            ----------- -----------                       -----------
AWS IAM Access Analyzer            IAMAA       AWS.Tools.AccessAnalyzer          3.7.400.33
AWS Account                        ACCT        AWS.Tools.Account                 3.7.400.33
AWS Certificate Manager Private... PCA         AWS.Tools.ACMPCA                  3.7.400.34
AWS Amplify                        AMP         AWS.Tools.Amplify                 3.7.401.28
Amplify Backend                    AMPB        AWS.Tools.AmplifyBackend          3.7.400.33
...

To determine the version of PowerShell that you are running, enter $PSVersionTable to view the contents of the $PSVersionTable automatic variable.

For example:

PS > $PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.2.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.2.2
OS                             Darwin 18.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 18.7.0: Tue Aug 20 16:57:14 PDT 2019; root:xnu-4903.271.2~2/RELEASE_X86_64
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Updating the Amazon Tools for PowerShell on Windows

Periodically, as updated versions of the Amazon Tools for PowerShell are released, you should update the version that you are running locally.

Update the Tools for Windows PowerShell

Run the Get-AWSPowerShellVersion cmdlet to determine the version that you are running, and compare that with the version of Tools for Windows PowerShell that is available on the PowerShell Gallery website. We suggest you check every two to three weeks. Support for new commands and Amazon services is available only after you update to a version with that support.

  • If you installed by using the Install-Module cmdlet, run the following commands.

    PS > Uninstall-Module -Name AWSPowerShell -AllVersions
PS > Install-Module -Name AWSPowerShell

  • If you installed by using a downloaded ZIP file:

    1. Download the most recent version from the Tools for PowerShell web site. Compare the package version number in the downloaded file name with the version number you get when you run the Get-AWSPowerShellVersion cmdlet.

    2. If the download version is a higher number than the version you have installed, close all Tools for Windows PowerShell consoles.

    3. Install the newer version of the Tools for Windows PowerShell.

After installation, run Import-Module AWSPowerShell to load the updated cmdlets into your PowerShell session. Or run the custom Amazon Tools for PowerShell console from your Start menu.