How to Create Permanent Powershell Aliases
I started developing on Windows in addition to Linux. I wanted a quick way to open up Visual Studio Code from the command line. The best way I could think of is using a PowerShell alias. Here is how to create a “permanent” PowerShell alias on Windows.
Find Your Profile.ps1 File
PowerShell has a profile.ps1 file that will execute any code inside of it on startup. Similar to vim’s .vimrc runtime config file.
This file can be stored in a few different locations. If you just want your current user to be able to execute the code, then run echo $profile
PS C:> echo $profile
C:\Users\hackerman\OneDrive\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
For all users, add a profile.ps1 script to $PsHome
PS C:> echo $PsHome
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
Add Alias
You may need to create the actual profile.ps1 file if it does not exist. Mine didn’t.
Add your alias.
Set-Alias -Name vscode -Value "C:\Users\hackerman\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe"
Restart PowerShell
Restart your PowerShell instance and the changes will take place.
References / Further Reading