powerscripts

PowerShell utility collection for setting up a productive environment on Windows 11 machines where you have no administrator access. Every operation is scoped to the current user — no elevation, no UAC prompts, no system-wide changes, and no security boundaries are bypassed.

Use case

Restricted corporate or institutional machines that block admin installs but allow per-user execution. The scripts install tools into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\, write only to the user's PowerShell profile, and never touch system paths or the registry outside the user hive.

Usage

.\localinstall.ps1 [SWITCH]

Switch	Description
-up	Scan %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ for installed executables and register their paths in the current PowerShell session (persisted via profile)
-python	Download and install Python 3.14 per-user into %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python314\
-ep	Create the PowerShell profile file if it doesn't exist ($PROFILE)
-sysinfo	Display OS name, version, system type, and total RAM
-date	Display current date and time

How -up works

1. Recursively searches %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\ for .exe files
2. Collects their unique parent directories
3. Writes conditional $env:Path entries to a paths.ps1 file in the profile directory
4. Ensures paths.ps1 is sourced from $PROFILE on every new session

This means any tool you install per-user (VSCode, Python, Git portable, etc.) becomes immediately available in your shell after a restart without touching the system PATH.

How -python works

Downloads the official Python installer directly from python.org and runs it with:

• InstallAllUsers=0 — current user only
• PrependPath=1 — registers the install dir
• TargetDir set to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python314\

No elevation required.

Security notes

• No Set-ExecutionPolicy changes — run with powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File localinstall.ps1 if needed for a one-off execution
• No writes outside the user profile and %LOCALAPPDATA%
• No scheduled tasks, services, or registry modifications outside HKCU
• All downloads are from official vendor URLs (Python.org)

Requirements

• Windows 11 (Windows 10 compatible)
• PowerShell 5.1+
• Internet access for -python