How to launch PowerShell (not a script) from the command line

Question

I am new to PowerShell and am struggling with what I assume should be a simple operation—I am trying to launch a PowesShell window from the command line.

If I launch a command line instance and type either powershell or start powershell, I am getting a PowerShell instance within the command line interface, i.e. the typical black background with white text. What I would like is for the typical PowerShell interface to launch—blue background with white text? I am running Windows XP with PowerShell 2.0 installed.

Answer 1

If you go to C:\Windows\system32\Windowspowershell\v1.0 (and C:\Windows\syswow64\Windowspowershell\v1.0 on x64 machines) in Windows Explorer and double-click powershell.exe you will see that it opens PowerShell with a black background. The PowerShell console shows up as blue when opened from the start menu because the console properties for shortcuts to powershell.exe can be set independently from the default properties.

To set the default options, font, colors and layout, open a PowerShell console, type Alt-Space, and select the Defaults menu option.

Running start powershell from cmd.exe should start a new console with your default settings.