For someone using Windows 11, are there meaningful benefits to installing PowerShell 7 and using it instead of the built-in Windows PowerShell 5.1? I'm mainly wondering about everyday scripting, compatibility, performance, available modules, and whether there are reasons to keep using 5.1.
4 Answers
For ordinary users, probably not. If you only occasionally open a shell or run simple commands, 5.1 is already available and does the job. PowerShell 7 becomes worthwhile when you write scripts regularly, use newer Microsoft modules, or want cross-platform support and ongoing improvements.
PowerShell 7 is the actively developed version. It runs on modern .NET, generally has better performance and encoding behavior, adds newer cmdlets and parameters, and supports features such as ForEach-Object -Parallel. Newer Graph, PnP, Entra, and other management modules increasingly target PowerShell 7, so it’s the better choice for new scripts.
I’ve seen a large performance difference on file-heavy scripts. An ACL scan that took a couple of hours in 5.1 finished in roughly half an hour in PowerShell 7 without changing the script.
For new work, I’d install PowerShell 7 unless you have a specific compatibility reason not to. It has better support for current modules, improved memory handling, modern text encoding, and active bug fixes. Keep 5.1 around rather than uninstalling it, because some Windows components and legacy modules still depend on it. PowerShell 7 also works well with Visual Studio Code, although the old integrated scripting editor remains a 5.1-only option.
You don’t necessarily have to choose one. PowerShell 5.1 is Windows PowerShell and is tied to the older .NET Framework, while PowerShell 7 is a separate, modern application. Keep 5.1 available for Windows-only modules or features that depend on .NET Framework, and use 7 for new development. PowerShell 7 can often load older modules, and you can still launch a 5.1 process when something requires it.
Compatibility with the target environment matters. If a script will run on older servers or customer systems that only have 5.1, developing against 5.1 avoids accidentally using commands or parameters they won’t have.
That’s basically how I approach it too: install 7 for personal and modern automation work, but don’t assume every older Windows script or module will work there unchanged.