How can prevent a PowerShell window from closing so I can see the error?

This will make the PowerShell window wait until you press the Enter key (not any key):

pause

Also simple and easy:

Start-Sleep 10

You basically have three options to prevent the PowerShell Console window from closing, that I describe in more detail in my blog post.

  1. One-time Fix: Run your script from the PowerShell Console, or launch the PowerShell process using the -NoExit switch. E.g., PowerShell -NoExit "C:\SomeFolder\SomeScript.ps1"

  2. Per-script Fix: Add a prompt for input to the end of your script file. E.g., Read-Host -Prompt "Press Enter to exit"

  3. Global Fix: Change your registry key to always leave the PowerShell Console window open after the script finishes running. Here's the two registry keys that would need to be changed:

    ● Open With → Windows PowerShell
    When you right-click a .ps1 file and choose Open With

    Registry Key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\powershell.exe\shell\open\command

    Default Value:

    "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" "%1"

    Desired Value:

    "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" "& \"%1\""

    ● Run with PowerShell
    When you right-click a .ps1 file and choose Run with PowerShell (shows up depending on which Windows OS and Updates you have installed).

    Registry Key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\0\Command

    Default Value:

    "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" "-Command" "if((Get-ExecutionPolicy ) -ne 'AllSigned') { Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass }; & '%1'"

    Desired Value:

    "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoExit "-Command" "if((Get-ExecutionPolicy ) -ne 'AllSigned') { Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass }; & \"%1\""

You can download a .reg file from my blog to modify the registry keys for you if you don't want to do it manually.

It sounds like you likely want to use option #2. You could even wrap your whole script in a try block, and only prompt for input if an error occurred, like so:

try
{
    # Do your script's stuff
}
catch
{
    Write-Error $_.Exception.ToString()
    Read-Host -Prompt "The above error occurred. Press Enter to exit."
}

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