Where does powershell saves the set-executionpolicy setting?
powershell, security
Solution
ExecutionPolicy is not a single setting stored in a single place. There are multiple scopes of ExecutionPolicy which are each set and stored differently. Run `Get-ExecutionPolicy -List` to see all the different scopes.
Using ProcMon to monitor what keys are being read/written when getting/setting the different scopes, I came up with this list:
- MachinePolicy and UserPolicy Can only be set via group policy. I think the keys end up being under `HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Powershell`
- Process does not seem to be stored in a reg key. That makes sense, as it appies only the current process. Probably just stored in memory.
- CurrentUser is stored at `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell [ExecutionPolicy]` Note you could set this for a particular user (i.e. besides current user) via `HKEY_USERS`
- LocalMachine is stored at `HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell [ExecutionPolicy]` This is the default scope when running `Set-ExecutionPolicy`.
See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/library/dd347641.aspx and http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=113394
Problem
I'm building some servers and need to run some powershell scripts on them. However, I need to run the command `Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy remotesigned -Force` manually on every server. Because I can't set execution policy in a script. I want to know where PowerShell save the execution policy setting and want to directly change it. Is that possible? Thanks.