Make Command-History Pop-Up work via F7 in Windows 10 Powershell [closed]

Question

In a Powershell console, on Windows 10 (10.0.17134.0), F7 does not pop-up the Command History like it does for CMD console. How could we make this work in a PS console window? Any hints on a $Profile syntax to do so?

Answer 1

As you discovered, this is because the PSReadline module is installed by default on Windows 10. You can add your own F7 in PSReadline by using the Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler cmdlet in a script. Example:

Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key F7 -BriefDescription "History" -LongDescription "Show command history" -ScriptBlock {
  $pattern = $null
  [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::GetBufferState([ref] $pattern, [ref] $null)
  if ( $pattern ) {
    $pattern = [Regex]::Escape($pattern)
  }
  $history = [System.Collections.ArrayList] @(
    $last = ""
    $lines = ""
    foreach ( $line in [System.IO.File]::ReadLines((Get-PSReadlineOption).HistorySavePath) ) {
      if ( $line.EndsWith('`') ) {
        $line = $line.Substring(0, $line.Length - 1)
        $lines = if ( $lines ) { "$lines`n$line" } else { $line }
        continue
      }
      if ( $lines ) {
        $line = "$lines`n$line"
        $lines = ""
      }
      if ( ($line -cne $last) -and ((-not $pattern) -or ($line -match $pattern)) ) {
        $last = $line
        $line
      }
    }
  )
  $command = $history | Out-GridView -Title History -PassThru
  if ( $command ) {
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::RevertLine()
    [Microsoft.PowerShell.PSConsoleReadLine]::Insert(($command -join "`n"))
  }
}

When you use this function, the F7 key will appear in a pop-up grid view window. Select a history entry and press Enter, and PowerShell will put it on the command line for editing.

Answer 2

Yes, one work around is: https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/4x5iig/f7_history_no_longer_in_windows_10_au/.

Run Remove-Module -Name PSReadLine from the command-line. It will remove the PSReadLine module from that session. That let's F7 work again to display the history.