How do you remove the PowerShell requirement that scripts and executables be preceded by ".\"?

It is a security feature so that you do run scripts that you think you are running. That is why unlike cmd, you do not have . ( current directory) in PATH and you have to do .\my.exe etc.

If you don't want to do this and subvert this precaution, add . to your PATH:

$env:PATH =$env:PATH+";."

add in your path (evironment variable) the path where you usually put your script and exe file.