Question

I want to run PowerShell scripts on Windows 7 as a regular user. Whenever I try, I get the following error:

File C:\Users\danv\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1 cannot be loaded because the
execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-help about_signing" for
more details.
At line:1 char:2
+ . <<<<  'C:\Users\danv\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1'
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException

Attempting to solve via Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted fails:

PS C:\Users\danv> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
Set-ExecutionPolicy : Access to the registry key
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell'
is denied.
At line:1 char:20
+ Set-ExecutionPolicy <<<<  Unrestricted
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-ExecutionPolicy], UnauthorizedAccessException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.UnauthorizedAccessException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetExecutionPolicyCommand

I can run the Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted command as administrator, but this doesn’t seem to propagate to non-administrator users.

How can I successfully run scripts as a non-administrator?

Answer 1

If you (or a helpful admin) runs Set-ExecutionPolicy as administrator, the policy will be set for all users. (I would suggest “remoteSigned” rather than “unrestricted” as a safety measure.)

NB.: On a 64-bit OS you need to run Set-ExecutionPolicy for 32-bit and 64-bit PowerShell separately.