And:

Get-Content (Get-PSReadlineOption).HistorySavePath| Select-String -Pattern "Get-"

Configure PowerShell Command History with the PSReadLine Module

The command history functionality in PowerShell is not built into the Windows Management Framework itself but is based on the PSReadLine module, which greatly enhances the functionality of the PowerShell console. The PSReadLine module on Windows is located in C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PSReadline folder and is automatically imported when you start the PowerShell console.

Check that the module is loaded into your current PowerShell session:

Get-Module

If the PSReadline module is not loaded, verify that it is installed. If necessary, install it from the PowerShell Gallery online repository:

Get-Module -ListAvailable | where {$_.name -like "*PSReadline*"}

Install-Module PSReadLine

A complete list of functions of the PSReadLine module for managing the commands history in PowerShell and the keys assigned to them can be displayed with the command:

Get-PSReadlineKeyHandler | ? {$_.function -like '*hist*'}

Key?????? Function??????????????? Description
---?????? --------??????????????? -----------
UpArrow?? PreviousHistory???????? Replace the input with the previous item in the history
DownArrow NextHistory???????????? Replace the input with the next item in the history
Ctrl+r??? ReverseSearchHistory??? Search history backwards interactively
Ctrl+s??? ForwardSearchHistory??? Search history forward interactively
Alt+F7??? ClearHistory??????????? Remove all items from the command line history (not PowerShell history)
F8??????? HistorySearchBackward?? Search for the previous item in the history that starts with the current input - like NextHistory if the input is empty
Shift+F8? HistorySearchForward??? Search for the next item in the history that starts with the current input - like NextHistory if the input is empty
Unbound?? ViSearchHistoryBackward Starts a new seach backward in the history.
Unbound?? BeginningOfHistory????? Move to the first item in the history
Unbound?? EndOfHistory??????????? Move to the last item (the current input) in the history

List the current PowerShell command history settings in the PSReadLine module:

Get-PSReadlineOption | select HistoryNoDuplicates, MaximumHistoryCount, HistorySearchCursorMovesToEnd, HistorySearchCaseSensitive, HistorySavePath, HistorySaveStyle

You may want to consider the following PSReadline parameters:

• HistoryNoDuplicates – whether the same commands have to be saved;
• MaximumHistoryCount – the maximum number of the stored commands (by default the last 4096 commands are saved);
• HistorySearchCursorMovesToEnd — whether it is necessary to jump to the end of the command when searching;
• istorySearchCaseSensitive – whether a search is case sensitive (PowerShell command history is not case sensitive by default);
• HistorySavePath – path to a text file where the history of PowerShell commands is stored;;
• HistorySaveStyle – command history saving options:
  • SaveIncrementally — the commands are saved when executed (by default);
  • SaveAtExit —the history is saved when you close the PowerShell console;
  • SaveNothing — disable saving command history.

You can change the PSReadLine module settings with the Set-PSReadlineOption command. For example, to increase the number of PowerShell commands stored in the log:

Set-PSReadlineOption -MaximumHistoryCount 10000

If you want to save not only the executed commands but also their output in the PowerShell command history, you can enable command transcription. Just add the following function to the user’s PowerShell profile (notepad $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts):

Function StartTranscript {
Trap {
Continue
}
$TranScriptFolder = $($(Split-Path $profile) + '\TranscriptLog\')
if (!(Test-Path -Path $TranScriptFolder )) { New-Item -ItemType directory -Path $TranScriptFolder }
Start-Transcript -Append ($($TranScriptFolder + $(get-date -format 'yyyyMMdd-HHmmss') + '.txt')) -ErrorVariable Transcript -ErrorAction stop
}
StartTranscript

The user profile now contains a detailed log file for each PowerShell session in the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\TranscriptLog directory.

How to Run a PowerShell Command without Saving it to History?

In the Linux bash shell, you can disable history for commands starting with spaces (with HISTCONTROL= ignorespace). You can configure similar behavior for PowerShell.

To do this, add the following code to the current user’s PowerShell profile ( $profile.CurrentUserAllHosts ):

Set-PSReadLineOption -AddToHistoryHandler {
    param($command)
    if ($command -like ' *') {
        return $false
    }
    return $true
} 

Now, just start your command with a space if you don’t want it to be saved in the PowerShell command history.

Also, starting with the Readline v2.0.4 module version, commands containing the following keywords are automatically ignored and not saved to the history: Password, Asplaintext, Token, Apikey, Secret. At the same time, cmdlets from the SecretManagement password management module are considered safe and allowed to be saved to the history file.

Using Predictive IntelliSense with PowerShell Command History

A new PowerShell Predictive IntelliSense feature is available in PSReadLine 2.2.2+. This feature displays the most appropriate commands from the local command history when you type a command in the PowerShell console.

In this example, I typed get-wm in the console, and Predictive IntelliSense suggested one of the commands I typed earlier that matched my input. If this command suits me, I need to press the right arrow key to accept this command and not type the rest of the characters manually.

By default, Predictive IntelliSense hints are displayed in gray text and are difficult to read against the black background of the PowerShell console. This command makes the suggested text more contrasting:

Set-PSReadLineOption -Colors @{ InlinePrediction = '#7A957B'}

To reset the IntelliSense predictive suggestion, press the Esc key.

You can switch to another view by pressing the F2 key. Now, instead of displaying one most appropriate command (InlineView ), a drop-down list with all similar commands will be displayed? (ListView).

Use the up/down keys to quickly select a command you need from the command history.

How to Clear the Command History in PowerShell?

As we explained above, the PSReadline module saves all PowerShell console commands to a text file. However, in some cases, the administrator has to enter various sensitive information into the PowerShell console (credentials, passwords, tokens, addresses, personal data, etc.). History data in a plain text file can be accessed by another server administrator or attacker. For security reasons, you might have to clear the history of the PowerShell commands that you have run or turn off the command history completely.

The Clear-History cmdlet allows you to clear the history of commands only in the current PowerShell session. It only deletes the previous command list that Get-History returns.

You can remove only one previous command from the history:

Clear-History -count 1 -newest

Or clear all commands with a specific pattern:

Clear-History -CommandLine *set-ad*

To completely clear the history of previous PowerShell commands, you need to delete the ConsoleHost_history.txt file that the PSReadline module writes to. You can get the current PowerShell history file location and remove it with the command:

Remove-Item (Get-PSReadlineOption).HistorySavePath

After that, close the PowerShell console window.

If you want to completely disable saving the history of PowerShell commands to a text file, run the command:

Set-PSReadlineOption -HistorySaveStyle SaveNothing

How to Export/Import PowerShell Command History to Another Session?

Sometimes it is convenient to have the same set of frequently used PowerShell commands on different computers. You can export the current command history on your computer to an XML file and import it to other computers. You can do this by copying the ConsoleHost_history.txt file in the user’s profile to the target computers.

You can also use the Export-Clixml cmdlet

to export command history from the current session to a text file:

Get-History | Export-Clixml -Path c:\ps\commands_hist.xml

To import command history from a file into another PowerShell session (on a local computer or on a different computer):

Add-History -InputObject (Import-Clixml -Path c:\ps\commands_hist.xml)

To automatically export the previous commands to a file when the PowerShell session ends, you can bind the script to the PoSh session end event (!! The session must be terminated with the exit command, r, not by simply closing the PowerShell console):

$HistFile = Join-Path ([Environment]::GetFolderPath('UserProfile')) .ps_history
Register-EngineEvent PowerShell.Exiting -Action { Get-History | Export-Clixml $HistFile } | out-null
if (Test-path $HistFile) { Import-Clixml $HistFile | Add-History }