I'm an experienced developer with a background in COBOL, Visual Basic, C#, mainframe systems, Linux, and distributed applications. My team uses PowerShell every day and maintains thousands of older PowerShell 5.x scripts for practical tasks such as scanning files for code pages and finding duplicates with hashes.
We usually edit and run these scripts in the old PowerShell ISE. It is familiar, clean, and comfortable for our workflow. As we gradually move to PowerShell 7, we're losing that experience. I've tried using the PowerShell extension for Visual Studio Code, but I haven't found it as simple or pleasant to use.
About a year ago, I started building my own lightweight editor designed to be a daily-driver environment for PowerShell 7. The goal isn't to create an advanced enterprise platform; it's to provide a smooth, approachable tool that my coworkers can use to move from PowerShell 5 to 7 with minimal disruption. I've tested early versions with a few colleagues, but the feedback has been that it is still buggy and doesn't yet feel enough like the ISE.
I'd like to make the project genuinely useful rather than something built only for me. What features or workflow improvements make the old ISE appealing to you, and what would you expect from a simple PowerShell 7 editor? I'd also appreciate honest feedback about whether building and maintaining a custom tool is worthwhile compared with using an established editor.
4 Answers
A custom editor could be useful for a team with a very specific workflow, but long-term maintenance is the biggest concern. If you leave the organization or no longer have time for it, someone else has to fix compatibility problems, package releases, and support future PowerShell versions. Keeping the application small, documenting it well, and making the core workflow dependable would matter more than adding lots of features.
It would help to identify exactly what you like about the ISE instead of treating the whole interface as one package. Is it the layout, the integrated console, the run-selection buttons, debugging, syntax colors, autocomplete, or simply how little configuration it requires? Those details could become a focused feature list for your project.
Visual Studio Code with only the PowerShell extension can be kept fairly simple, so I’d first investigate which parts of it feel uncomfortable and whether they can be changed through settings or keybindings. There are also commercial PowerShell-focused tools, but an established product may be safer for a team than relying on a custom application that only one person knows how to maintain.
The project still sounds worthwhile as a learning exercise and could produce something valuable for your coworkers. Modern coding assistants can help prototype interface elements and refine the tool, but the important part is testing every generated change carefully. Start with a narrow set of reliable features—editing, running selections, an integrated console, and basic debugging—then expand only when the daily workflow is solid.
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