VS code ready to replace PowerShell ISE?

There is a push to go to Visual Studio Code, which is a plug-in rather than the PowerShell.exe having its own dedicated ISE application. It can be seen as smart, others see this as allowing for distractions.

Convenient Or inconvenient?

I do not like the syntax in the responses of commands, I don’t like the lack of the warm tab complete I am used to, and app stability. I complain about ISE lacking UI updates, but I hate the clumsy attempts to cram PowerShell into VS Code. It’s great if you want to do things across OS platforms.

I do however love VS Code for web coding and even do other one off projects.

I find the built in ISE to be the reliable of the two. It doesn’t ask me to update every time I launch it to do work.

I will say you lose some of the cool features if you are managing an updated landscape. For companies living in the past, PowerShell ISE is still relevant for interactions of windows 10 and server 2016 and you save space and can relax knowing you aren’t breaking unwritten standards as far as automation or script development.

What’s your favorite ISE? Let me know in the comments below.

Published by Xajuan Smith

Computer Information Specialist, with a desire to make the masses feel what I was born to channel...The emotion that strives us to do more, speak more boldly and with most sincere ideals that will make life easier and will not hinder the dreams we all have at any given time.

11 thoughts on “VS code ready to replace PowerShell ISE?

  1. I am using VSCode whenever I can. It is a great tool for developing scripts and modules.

    However, VSCode seems to be a tool made by developers for developers or for guys who are making demos on just one or two computers.
    I am a Sysadmin and must multitask the entire day.
    Thus, I am constantly running pieces of code on multiple servers.
    With ISE this works fine: hit CTRL+SHIFT+R and voilà! you have a new remote connection with a linked script pane.
    In VSCode, all code panes are linked to the same terminal. If you want to execute code from a code pane on a different server, you must either wait for the terminal to finish its current work or open a new console with a new terminal. So, if you work simultaneously on five servers you end up with five VSCode consoles. With ISE, you have just one console to make the same work.

    I am not emotionally attached to ISE at all, but for multitasking, ISE is far better than VSCode.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. I want to like VSCode, but I’m forced back to the ISE too often.
    Latest one was discovering that the type returned from a command was different in PowerShell to Code. Wound up having to redo work in the ISE instead to ensure that it worked.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. I understand the intellisense disappointments as well as some of the other disappointments mentioned here. On that I have to ask if folks are submitting or checking for issues in the github repo? Are you interactive in the VSCode channel of the PowerShell slack group?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You have a great point. We should be active in the github community, it’s also a dual sided thing. Like other you have the desire but not the time. I find myself exhausting my free time prior to getting around to github involvement. I’m still getting used to an iPhone after having a windows phone for the past 10 years. Lol

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      1. Ohhh how I do miss WindowsPhone. Agree it can be very time consuming, a nice feature in VSCode btw is the ability to submit a github issue right from your session. I struggled mightily with VSCode but saw it improve with each udate. The vscode channel in slack is great because the developers are very active in it. For me getting a good settings file and powershell snippet file sold it for me. I have been using PowerShell editors from way back.. I still miss PowerGUI but Sapein’s editor is great, Idera has a great free editor but at the end of the day I am in VSCode as much as I can.

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  4. Personally, I prefer VS Code over the PowerShell ISE. I dumped the ISE over frustration with it and used 3rd party tools to develop PowerShell scripts and modules. Even though I prefer VS Code over the ISE, I have some frustrations. In recent years, Microsoft has adopted a rapid development/release cycle at the expense of reliability and quality. I do like having new features and functionality in the software that I use, but because I rely so heavily on these tools, I would rather wait for longer periods to time for releases if it means the software is of high quality and high reliability. This problem is with many Microsoft products, not just VS Code.

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