How to create permanent PowerShell Aliases

Question

UPDATED - January 2021

It's possible to store in a profile.ps1 file any PowerShell code to be executed each time PowerShell starts. There are at least 6 different paths where to store the code depending on which user has to execute it. We will consider only 2 of them: the "all users" and the "only your user" paths (follow the previous link for further options).

To answer your question, you only have to create a profile.ps1 file containing the code you want to be executed, that is:

New-Alias Goto Set-Location

and save it in the proper path:

• "$Home\Documents" (usually C:\Users\<yourname>\Documents): only your user will execute the code. This is the recommended location You can quickly find your profile location by running echo $profile in PowerShell
• $PsHome (C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0): every user will execute this code

IMPORTANT: remember you need to restart your PowerShell instances to apply the changes.

TIPS

• If both paths contain a profile.ps1 file, the all-users one is executed first, then the user-specific one. This means the user-specific commands will overwrite variables in case of duplicates or conflicts.

• Always put the code in the user-specific profile if there is no need to extend its execution to every user. This is safer because you don't pollute other users' space (usually, you don't want to do that).
  Another advantage is that you don't need administrator rights to add the file to your user-space (you do for anything in C:\Windows\System32).

• If you really need to execute the profile code for every user, mind that the $PsHome path is different for 32bit and 64bit instances of PowerShell. You should consider both environments if you want to always execute the profile code.

  The paths are:

  • C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0 for the 64bit environment
  • C:\Windows\SysWow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0 for the 32bit one (Yeah I know, the folder naming is counterintuitive, but it's correct).

It's not a good idea to add this kind of thing directly to your $env:WINDIR powershell folders, unless you truly want your alias to be global.
The recommended way is to add it to your personal profile:

cd $env:USERPROFILE\Documents
md WindowsPowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
cd WindowsPowerShell
New-Item Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 -ItemType "file" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
powershell_ise.exe .\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1

Now add your alias to the Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 file that is now opened:

function Do-ActualThing {
    # do actual thing
}

Set-Alias MyAlias Do-ActualThing

Then save it, and refresh the current session with:

. $profile

Note: Just in case, if you get permission issue like

CategoryInfo : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

Try the below command and refresh the session again.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

2018, Windows 10

You can link to any file or directory with the help of a simple PowerShell script.

Writing a file shortcut script

Open Windows PowerShell ISE. In the script pane write:

New-Alias ${shortcutName} ${fullFileLocation}

Then head to the command-line pane. Find your PowerShell user profile address with echo $profile. Save the script in this address.

The script in PowerShell's profile address will run each time you open powershell. The shortcut should work with every new PowerShell window.

Writing a directory shortcut script

It requires another line in our script.

function ${nameOfFunction} {set-location ${directory_location}}
New-Alias ${shortcut} ${nameOfFunction} 

The rest is exactly the same.

Enable PowerShell Scripts

By default PowerShell scripts are blocked. To enable them, open settings -> Update & Security -> For developers. Select Developer Mode (might require restart). .

Scroll down to the PowerShell section, tick the "Change execution policy ..." option, and apply.

Open a Windows PowerShell window and type:

notepad $profile

Then create a function, such as:

function goSomewhereThenOpenGoogleThenDeleteSomething {
    cd C:\Users\
    Start-Process -FilePath "http://www.google.com"
    rm fileName.txt
}

Then type this under the function name:

Set-Alias google goSomewhereThenOpenGoogleThenDeleteSomething

Now you can type the word "google" into Windows PowerShell and have it execute the code within your function!