if you were wondering where the PSScriptanalyzer module was in Windows 10 RTM – its not there. Its been moved out of core PowerShell and is now available on the PSGallery.
£> Find-Module *Script*
Version Name Repository
——- —- ———-
0.1 nScriptAnalyzerRules PSGallery
1.0.2 PSScriptAnalyzer PSGallery
1.3.1.0 ScriptBrowser PSGallery
1.5.2.0 ScriptCop PSGallery
1.0.4.0 ScriptCS PSGallery
1.0 ScriptTransforms PSGallery
1.0 SQLInvokeScripts PSGallery
You can install it from the gallery
£> Install-Module -Name PSScriptAnalyzer
You are installing the module(s) from an untrusted repository. If you trust this repository, change its
InstallationPolicy value by running the Set-PSRepository cmdlet.
Are you sure you want to install software from ‘https://www.powershellgallery.com/api/v2/’?
[Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "N"): y
By default the gallery isn’t a trusted source so you’ll need to confirm the install. I’d recommend NOT making PSGallery a trusted source. That designation should be reserved for your internal repositories.
The module has 2 cmdlets
£> Get-Command -Module PSScriptAnalyzer
CommandType Name
———– —-
Cmdlet Get-ScriptAnalyzerRule
Cmdlet Invoke-ScriptAnalyzer
You can view the rules currently available:
£> Get-ScriptAnalyzerRule | Format-Table RuleName, Severity -AutoSize
RuleName Severity
——– ——–
PSAvoidUsingCmdletAliases Warning
PSAvoidDefaultValueSwitchParameter Warning
PSAvoidUsingEmptyCatchBlock Warning
PSAvoidGlobalVars Warning
PSAvoidInvokingEmptyMembers Warning
PSAvoidUsingPositionalParameters Warning
PSReservedCmdletChar Warning
PSReservedParams Warning
PSAvoidShouldContinueWithoutForce Warning
PSAvoidUsingDeprecatedManifestFields Warning
PSProvideDefaultParameterValue Warning
PSAvoidUninitializedVariable Warning
PSAvoidUsingUserNameAndPassWordParams Error
PSAvoidUsingComputerNameHardcoded Error
PSAvoidUsingConvertToSecureStringWithPlainText Error
PSAvoidUsingInternalURLs Information
PSAvoidUsingInvokeExpression Warning
PSAvoidUsingPlainTextForPassword Warning
PSAvoidUsingWMICmdlet Warning
PSAvoidUsingWriteHost Warning
PSUseOutputTypeCorrectly Information
PSMissingModuleManifestField Warning
PSPossibleIncorrectComparisonWithNull Warning
PSProvideCommentHelp Information
PSUseApprovedVerbs Warning
PSUseCmdletCorrectly Warning
PSUseDeclaredVarsMoreThanAssigments Warning
PSUsePSCredentialType Warning
PSShouldProcess Warning
PSUseShouldProcessForStateChangingFunctions Warning
PSUseSingularNouns Warning
PSDSCDscTestsPresent Information
PSDSCDscExamplesPresent Information
PSDSCUseVerboseMessageInDSCResource Information
PSDSCUseIdenticalMandatoryParametersForDSC Error
PSDSCUseIdenticalParametersForDSC Error
PSDSCStandardDSCFunctionsInResource Error
PSDSCReturnCorrectTypesForDSCFunctions Information
You can also get a description of the rule. Its worth reading through the rules to see what is considered best practice by the authors of this module!
This simple script should trigger a few rules 
Write-Host ‘getting data’
gwmi Win32_computersystem
£> Invoke-ScriptAnalyzer -Path C:\TestScripts\testsa.ps1 | fl
RuleName : PSAvoidUsingWriteHost
Severity : Warning
Line : 1
Column : 1
Message : File ‘testsa.ps1’ uses Write-Host. This is not recommended because it may not work in some hosts or there may even be no hosts at all. Use Write-Output instead.
RuleName : PSAvoidUsingPositionalParameters
Severity : Warning
Line : 2
Column : 1
Message : Cmdlet ‘gwmi’ has positional parameter. Please use named parameters instead of positional parameters when calling a command.
RuleName : PSAvoidUsingPositionalParameters
Severity : Warning
Line : 1
Column : 1
Message : Cmdlet ‘Write-Host’ has positional parameter. Please use named parameters instead of positional parameters when calling a command.
RuleName : PSAvoidUsingCmdletAliases
Severity : Warning
Line : 2
Column : 1
Message : ‘gwmi’ is an alias of ‘Get-WmiObject’. Alias can introduce possible problems and make scripts hard to maintain. Please consider changing alias to its full content.
Nice simple way to test your code for best practices and avoid some of the major issues that make scripts difficult to read and maintain