Install PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio Express

I spotted an image on the Web where someone was using Visual Studio to build and debug PowerShell scripts. What a great Idea I thought, the power of PowerShell coupled with Visual Studios ALM tools would be great. I also spend loads of time in the ISE and VS and end up tabbing back and forth between them.

Adam Driscoll (PowerShell MVP) has published has PowerShell Tools on Visual Studio Gallery and I thought I would give it a go.

At work I use VS2013 Pro, and it all installed fine through the Extension and Upgrades manager, but when I got home and fired up VS2013 Express I couldn't find it in the Gallery Search, so  I thought it wasn't supported on the Express version and that was that. But I thought I would download it and try to install it and find out what didn't work.

When the installer failed I was prompted to view the Log File - the place where all the good stuff is :)

The log file offered up some juicy info:

Required .NET 4.5

Supported Products :
Microsoft.VisualStudio.IntegratedShell
Version : [12.0]
Microsoft.VisualStudio.IntegratedShell
Version : [14.0]
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro
Version : [12.0]
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Pro
Version : [14.0]
.
.
.
Found installed product - Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop
Found installed product - Global Location


Ah, so Express isn't supported, but wait.... the Integrated Shell is.

Now I did come across the integrated shell when I started to use it for Source Control for my PowerShell scripts hooked up to TFS Online....... So lets install Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Shell

Due to some dependencies we have a three step process to go through.

1. Download and Install the Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package
2. Download and Install the Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Shell (Integrated) Redistributable Package
3. Download and Run VSIX installer

Select Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Shell (Integrated)

We are up and running.... Adam Driscoll's PowerShell Tools extension running without VS Pro.

Thank you Adam for your contribution, its made my day that little bit better!