# Your Profile Your profile is a script PowerShell runs every time it starts, at the path in $PROFILE, so the variables, short names and settings you put in it are ready in every window, and dot-sourcing it loads a change into the window you're in. Apprentice · PowerShell · Updated November 10, 2026 ## After this lesson you can - Find your profile with $PROFILE, keep a copy first, and add lines that run in every new PowerShell window - Load a script into your session by dot-sourcing it, and explain why running it without the dot forgets what it set ## Key takeaways - Your profile is a script that runs every time PowerShell starts. `$PROFILE` holds its path, and `Test-Path $PROFILE` says whether you have one yet. - Make it with `New-Item` only when it doesn't exist yet. If it does, keep a copy with `Copy-Item` before you change it. - Running a script forgets what it set when it ends. Dot-sourcing, a dot and a space before the path, runs it in your session, so what it sets stays. - After you change your profile, `. $PROFILE` loads it into the window you're in. - `pwsh -NoProfile` starts PowerShell without your profile, for the day a line in it goes wrong. Every morning you open PowerShell and type the same things: go to your project folder, set the variable you always use, maybe a short name or two. Close the window, and it's all gone; tomorrow you type it again. Tutorials have the answer in one line, "add this to your profile", and then never say what a profile is. It's the place your PowerShell setup lives, and this lesson shows you how to find it, change it safely and load it. ## A script that runs when PowerShell starts A café opens the same way every day: lights, coffee machine, the sign on the door, from a checklist taped by the counter. Your **profile** is PowerShell's opening checklist: a script that runs every time PowerShell starts, before your first prompt. Its path is in the variable `$PROFILE`: ```powershell $PROFILE ``` ```text C:\Users\Sam\Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 ``` If OneDrive backs up your Documents folder, the path has `OneDrive` in it: that's fine. A new computer has the path but not the file yet. `Test-Path`, from *Is It There? Test-Path*, checks: ```powershell Test-Path $PROFILE ``` ```text False ``` ## Make it, or keep a copy first **If `Test-Path` said False**, make the file. `-Force` also makes the `PowerShell` folder it goes in: ```powershell New-Item -ItemType File -Path $PROFILE -Force ``` ```text Directory: C:\Users\Sam\Documents\PowerShell Mode LastWriteTime Length Name ---- ------------- ------ ---- -a--- 11/9/2026 6:15 AM 0 Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 ``` Run that only after a False: on a file that's already there, `New-Item -Force` empties it. **If `Test-Path` said True**, an app or an old tutorial made one already. Keep a copy before you change anything, so one wrong line is quick to undo: ```powershell Copy-Item $PROFILE "$PROFILE.backup" ``` Now open it in an editor with `edit $PROFILE` (*Editing in the Terminal: edit*), add three lines at the end, save with Ctrl+S and quit with Ctrl+Q. Then look: ```powershell Get-Content $PROFILE ``` ```text # My PowerShell profile: runs every time PowerShell starts. $practice = "$HOME\terminal-practice" Write-Output "Welcome back! Today is $(Get-Date -Format dddd)." ``` A line starting with `#` is a comment, a note for people that PowerShell skips. Open a new tab (Ctrl+Shift+T), and the welcome line greets you above the prompt, with `$practice` ready to use. ## Run it here: dot-sourcing The window you already had open doesn't know about the new lines yet. Here's why. When a script runs, it works in a room of its own, called its **scope**; when it ends, the room is cleared, along with every variable it made. A small settings script in the practice folder shows it: ```powershell Set-Location "$HOME\terminal-practice\scripts" Set-Content -Path .\settings.ps1 -Value '$snackBudget = 25' .\settings.ps1 $snackBudget ``` The script ran and set `$snackBudget`, then its room was cleared: the last line prints nothing. Now put a dot and a space in front: ```powershell . .\settings.ps1 $snackBudget ``` ```text 25 ``` ![Two ways to run settings.ps1. Without the dot, it works in a room of its own that is cleared when it ends, so $snackBudget is gone; with a dot and a space in front, it works in your own room, and $snackBudget = 25 stays](https://fsdtrainingmedia.blob.core.windows.net/public/images/2026/11/20444c06a6654531bb68be5eb2ec97c8.webp) Read `. .\settings.ps1` as "dot, space, then the path". That's **dot-sourcing**: run this script in my room, so what it sets stays. Your profile works the same way, so after you change it, load it into the window you're in: ```powershell . $PROFILE $practice ``` ```text Welcome back! Today is Monday. C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice ``` ## When the profile gets in the way A profile is a script, so the execution policy from *Why a Script Won't Run: The Execution Policy* applies: if scripts can't run, PowerShell opens with a red *cannot be loaded* message where your welcome should be. And if a line you added breaks something, start PowerShell without the profile, then fix the line or copy your backup back: ```powershell pwsh -NoProfile ``` ```text PowerShell 7.6.9 PS C:\Users\Sam> ``` That's a fresh session inside the window, with no profile loaded and no welcome line. Type `exit` to leave it. Windows PowerShell 5.1 has a profile of its own, in `Documents\WindowsPowerShell`, and VS Code's PowerShell has one too: `$PROFILE` in each shows its path. On a Mac or Linux, it's `~/.config/powershell/Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1`. **Try it.** Add a line of your own to your profile, such as `$downloads = "$HOME\Downloads"`, then dot-source the profile and type `Get-ChildItem $downloads`. ## Try it in the terminal [Terminal Quest: The Clockwork Workshop, goal 6](https://www.ask-codey.com/games/terminal-quest/workshop/powershell/step): played right on the lesson page. The gearbox needs settings that a plain run forgets. Load them into your own session, the way you load your profile. ## Check yourself 2 questions to try on the lesson page. ## So what Anything you type every day can live in your profile: write it once, keep a copy, dot-source it, and every PowerShell window starts ready for you. ## Key terms - [Profile](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/profile) - [Dot-Sourcing](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/dot-sourcing) - [Scope](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/scope-powershell) ## Cheat sheets - [Your Profile](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/powershell-profile-cheat-sheet) ## Related - [Why a Script Won't Run: The Execution Policy](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-execution-policy) - [Aliases and Small Functions](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-aliases-and-small-functions) - [A Prompt in Your Colors](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-custom-prompt) - [Editing in the Terminal: edit](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-editing-with-edit) Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-profile