Is there a way to make a PowerShell script work by double clicking a .ps1 file?

I am distributing a PowerShell script to my team. The script is to fetch an IP address from the Vsphere client, make an mstsc connection, and log it in a shared file.

The moment they used the script they got to know the IP address of machine. After that, they always tend to use mstsc directly instead of running the PowerShell script.
(As they are using mstsc I am not able to know whether they are using the VM frequently or not.)

Mainly they are telling me that running PowerShell is not straightforward.

I am sick by their laziness.

Is there a way to make a PowerShell script work by double clicking a .ps1 file?

Create a shortcut with something like this as the "Target":

powershell.exe -command "& 'C:\A path with spaces\MyScript.ps1' -MyArguments blah"

Be aware that one of PowerShell's security features is that users can NOT launch script with a double click. Use great care if you modify this setting. An alternative might be to package your script. Some editors like PrimalScript can do that. The users still need PowerShell installed but then they can double-click the exe. And it sounds like your team needs a little education.

I agree that setting a system setting may be a bit much, but the shortcut requiring a hardcoded path is not ideal. A bat file actually solves the problem nicely

RunMyPowershellScript.bat

start powershell -command "& '.\MyPowershellScript.ps1' -MyArguments blah"


This batch file can now be double clicked on, shortcuts can be easily created to the batch file, and the script can be deployed to any folder.

put a simple .cmd file in my subfolder with my .ps1 file with the same name, so, for example, a script named "foobar" would have "foobar.ps1" and "foobar.cmd". So to run the .ps1, all I have to do is click the .cmd file from explorer or run the .cmd from a command prompt. I use the same base name because the .cmd file will automatically look for the .ps1 using its own name.

::====================================================================
:: Powershell script launcher
::=====================================================================
:MAIN
@echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%p in ("%~p0") do set SCRIPT_PATH=%%p
pushd "%SCRIPT_PATH%"

powershell.exe -sta -c "& {.\%~n0.ps1 %*}"

popd
set SCRIPT_PATH=
pause

The pushd/popd allows you to launch the .cmd file from a command prompt without having to change to the specific directory where the scripts are located. It will change to the script directory then when complete go back to the original directory.

You can also take the pause off if you want the command window to disappear when the script finishes.

If my .ps1 script has parameters, I prompt for them with GUI prompts using .NET Forms, but also make the scripts flexible enough to accept parameters if I want to pass them instead. This way I can just double-click it from Explorer and not have to know the details of the parameters since it will ask me for what I need, with list boxes or other forms.

This is based on KoZm0kNoT's answer. I modified it to work across drives.

@echo off
pushd "%~d0"
pushd "%~dp0"
powershell.exe -sta -c "& {.\%~n0.ps1 %*}"
popd
popd

The two pushd/popds are necessary in case the user's cwd is on a different drive. Without the outer set, the cwd on the drive with the script will get lost.

1. Navigate REGEDIT to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell
2. On the right pane, double-click "(Default)"
3. Delete existing value of "Open" (which launches Notepad) and type "0" (being zero, which launches Powershell directly).

Revert the value if you wish to use Notepad as the default again.

From

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:

Set the default value for the <code>HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell</code> to <code>0</code>

This is what I use to have scrips run as admin by default:

Powershell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList '-File """%1"""'}"
You'll need to paste that into regedit as the default value for:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\Open\Command
Or here's a script that will do it for you:

$hive = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenBaseKey('ClassesRoot', 'Default')
$key = $hive.CreateSubKey('Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\Open\Command')
$key.SetValue($null, 'Powershell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList ''-File """%1"""''}"')

You'll need to tweak registry.
First, configure a PSDrive for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT since this isn’t set up by default. The command for this is:

New-PSDrive HKCR Registry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT

Now you can navigate and edit registry keys and values in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT just like you would in the regular HKCU and HKLM PSDrives.

To configure double-clicking to launch PowerShell scripts directly:

Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 0

To configure double-clicking to open PowerShell scripts in the PowerShell ISE:

Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 'Edit'

To restore the default value (sets double-click to open PowerShell scripts in Notepad):

Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 'Open'