Hey everyone! I'm seeking some advice from other admins who handle complex Microsoft 365 and hybrid environments. Currently, I rely on PowerShell ISE for my scripting tasks, but as my workload increases, I'm facing limitations with it. I frequently work with multiple connections, including Microsoft Graph API (using certificate-based authentication), Exchange Online PowerShell, PnP PowerShell for SharePoint Online, and Exchange On-Prem. Managing these various modules and their authentication methods is getting tricky, and PowerShell ISE feels outdated for what I need.
How do you approach this in your own setups? What tools or editors do you prefer to use instead of PowerShell ISE? Is it worth switching to something like VS Code or Visual Studio? Also, do you have any advice on best practices for managing multiple connections, especially with certificate-based auth? I'd love to hear how you structure your scripts and manage sessions to prevent module conflicts and disconnections. Any tips or examples would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
2 Answers
PowerShell ISE is pretty much on its way out. Microsoft stopped supporting it a while back, and it can't even handle PowerShell 7 natively! I'd definitely recommend switching to VS Code. It’s much more flexible and useful for scripting tasks. Plus, if you don't rely too much on saved scripts, chances are, Microsoft will have changed things by the time you need them again.
Just a heads-up—ISE is pretty deprecated now. I switched to VS Code recently and find it way better. For serious automation, think about using an orchestration tool so you don’t have to run everything manually each time. It saves a lot of headaches!
I've had production scripts using Graph API beta that remain stable over the years. I don't use the module cmdlets; instead, I craft my own wrappers around the API endpoints.