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---
RFC: RFC0066
Author: Justin Chung
Status: Draft
SupercededBy: N/A
Version: 1.0
Area: Core
Comments Due: 05/03/2025
Plan to implement: Yes
---

# PowerShell User Content Location

This RFC proposes moving the current PowerShell user content location out of OneDrive to the AppData directory on Windows machines.

## Motivation

- PowerShell currently places profile, modules, and configuration files in the user's Documents folder, which is against established conventions for shell configurations and tools.
- PowerShell content files in OneDrive can lead to unwanted syncing of module files, leading to various issues.
- There is strong community demand for changing this behavior as the current setup is problematic for many users.
- Changing the default location would align PowerShell with other developer tools and improve usability.

As a user,
I can customize the location where PowerShell user content is installed,
so that I can avoid problems created by file sync solutions like OneDrive.

## User Experience

- On startup PowerShell will create a directory in AppData and a configuration file.
- In the configuration file the user scoped PSModulePath will point to AppData/PowerShell/Modules.
- Users can opt out of this new location by specifying a desired user scoped module path in the configuration file.

## Specification

- The content folder location change will only apply to PowerShell on Windows.
- Configurability of the content folder will apply to all systems.
- This will be an experimental feature.
- The PowerShell user content folder will be located in the `$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\PowerShell`.
- A configuration file in the PowerShell user content folder will determine the location of the user scoped PSModulePath.
- The user will be responsible for specifying thier desired install location using PSResourceGet.
- The location of Modules is configurable
- The location of this folder is not configurable.
- The proposed directory structure:

C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\PowerShell\
├── PSContent (Configurable)
└── PSModulePathConfig.json (Not Configurable)

PSContent (Configurable)
├── Scripts (Not Configurable)
├── Modules (Not Configurable)
├── Help (Not Configurable)
└── profile.ps1 (Not Configurable)

- The configuration file:

```json
{
"UserPSContentPath" : "C:\\Users\\User\\PowerShell"
}
```

## Alternate Proposals and Considerations

- The following functionalities will be affected:
- SecretManagement
- SecretManagement extension vaults are registered for the current user context in:
`$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\PowerShell\secretmanagement\secretvaultregistry\`

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This is why we need to keep it in this $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\PowerShell\ path as to reduce configuration location sprawl & simplify documentation


When an extension vault is registered, SecretManagement stores the full path to the extension
module in the registry. Moving the PowerShell content to a new location will break the vault
registrations.
- Use the following script to relocate the PowerShell contents folder:

```pwsh
$newPath = "C:\Custom\PowerShell\Modules"
$currentUserModulePath = [System.Environment]::GetFolderPath('MyDocuments') + "\PowerShell\Modules"
Move-Item -Path $currentUserModulePath -Destination $newPath -Force
```