Windows PowerShell terminal using PowerShell 7 modules

[splatteredbits]

Type: Bug

I discovered this error when I tried to run Get-ExecutionPolicy in a Windows PowerShell 5.1 terminal and would get this error:

get-executionpolicy : The 'get-executionpolicy' command was found in the module 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Security', but the module could 
not be loaded. For more information, run 'Import-Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Security'.
At line:1 char:1
+ get-executionpolicy
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (get-executionpolicy:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotAutoloadMatchingModule

Steps to reproduce:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+`)
2. Click the "Launch Profile" down-pointing caret and choose "Windows PowerShell".
3. Run Import-Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Security and you'll get the error: import-Module : The following error occurred while loading the extended type data file: Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member AuditToString is already present.. (Full error below [1].)
4. Open a Windows PowerShell terminal from the Windows start menu outside Visual Studio Code. The above command runs without errors.

The root of the problem is that the Windows PowerShell process launched by Visual Studio Code contains module paths from PowerShell 7. These modules can't be loaded by Windows PowerShell. Here are the module paths from Windows PowerShell launched from the Windows start menu:

> $env:PSModulePath -split ';'
C:\Users\********\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

Here are the module paths in Windows PowerShell launched by Visual Studio Code:

> $env:PSModulePath -split ';'
C:\Users\********\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\Users\********\Documents\PowerShell\Modules
C:\Program Files\PowerShell\Modules
c:\program files\powershell\7\Modules
C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules

[1] Import-Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Security error:

import-Module : The following error occurred while loading the extended type data file: Error in TypeData 
"System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member AuditToString is already present.
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member AccessToString is already present.
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member Sddl is already present.
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member Access is already present.        
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member Group is already present.
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member Owner is already present.
Error in TypeData "System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity": The member Path is already present.
At line:1 char:1
+ import-Module Microsoft.PowerShell.Security
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Import-Module], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : FormatXmlUpdateException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ImportModuleCommand       

VS Code version: Code 1.101.0 (dfaf441, 2025-06-11T15:00:50.123Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19045
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12800H (20 x 2803)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: enabled_on direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	31.67GB (11.80GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 0218cdfb-59b0-432f-b010-d05368101361
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (20)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
insert-unicode	bru	0.15.1
chef	che	2.2.12
vscode-markdownlint	Dav	0.60.0
docker	doc	0.10.0
EditorConfig	Edi	0.17.4
terraform	has	2.34.4
vscode-containers	ms-	2.0.3
vscode-docker	ms-	2.0.0
csdevkit	ms-	1.20.35
csharp	ms-	2.80.16
vscode-dotnet-runtime	ms-	2.3.5
vscodeintellicode-csharp	ms-	2.2.3
remote-containers	ms-	0.417.0
remote-wsl	ms-	0.99.0
powershell	ms-	2025.0.0
pester-test	psp	2023.7.7
vscode-xml	red	0.29.0
vscode-yaml	red	1.18.0
ruby-lsp	Sho	0.9.28
rewrap	stk	1.16.3

A/B Experiments

vsliv368:30146709
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805:30301674
binariesv615:30325510
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
a9j8j154:30646983
962ge761:30959799
h48ei257:31000450
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dwnewjupytercf:31046870
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc2:31192216
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
6074i472:31201624
dwoutputs:31242946
customenabled:31248079
9064b325:31222308
copilot_t_ci:31222730
e5gg6876:31282496
pythoneinst12:31285622
bgtreat:31268568
4gafe986:31271826
c7cif404:31314491
pythonpulldiag:31325930
996jf627:31283433
pythonrdcb7:31303018
usemplatestapi:31297334
0aa6g176:31307128
7bj51361:31289155
747dc170:31275177
pylancecolor:31314202
aj953862:31281341
generatesymbolt:31295002
convertfstringf:31295003
gendocf:31295004
pylancequickfixf:31319675

[splatteredbits]

As a workaround, you can add this to your Windows PowerShell profile:

$newModulePaths =
    $env:PSModulePath -split ';' |
    Where-Object { $_ -notmatch '(Documents|Program Files)\\PowerShell' }
$newModulePath = $newModulePaths -join ';'
if ($newModulePath -ne $env:PSModulePath)
{
    Write-Warning "Removing PowerShell 7 paths from PSModulePath environment variable."
    $env:PSModulePath = $newModulePath
}

[meganrogge]

seems like something with your setup -- cannot repro and have not seen other reports of this, thus closing