⬇️Installation

PowerShell Universal supports Windows MSI, ZIP, PowerShell module, Docker, IIS, and Linux service installations. Choose the method that matches your hosting environment.

See also

• Devolutions Academy – Installation

MSI Install (Windows)

The MSI install creates a PowerShell Universal service. By default, PowerShell Universal listens on port 5000. You can navigate to http://localhost:5000

MSI downloads are available on our download page.

System installs run as a Windows service. User installs run when the user logs in to the machine. The user install runs in the user's context.

MSI Parameters

Use uppercase PROPERTY=value arguments with msiexec. The defaults below apply to a new machine-wide installation unless a per-user default is listed.

Parameter	Description	Default value
INSTALLFOLDER	Folder where PowerShell Universal is installed.	Machine: %ProgramFiles%\Universal; per-user: %LocalAppData%\Programs\PowerShellUniversal
MSIINSTALLPERUSER	Installation scope. Set to 1 for a per-user installation; set to 0 for a machine-wide installation.	0
TCPPORT	HTTP port for the server.	5000
HTTPSPORT	HTTPS port when DEVCERT=1.	5001
DEVCERT	Creates and installs a localhost development certificate and enables the HTTPS endpoint. This is disabled for per-user installs.	Machine: 1; per-user: 0
REPOFOLDER	Repository folder for PowerShell Universal configuration files.	Machine: %ProgramData%\UniversalAutomation\Repository; per-user: %LocalAppData%\PowerShellUniversal\Repository
CONNECTIONSTRING	Connection string for the selected persistence provider.	Machine: Data Source=%ProgramData%\UniversalAutomation\database.db; per-user: Data Source=%LocalAppData%\PowerShellUniversal\database.db
DATABASETYPE	Persistence provider. Valid values are SQLite, PostgreSQL, and Microsoft SQL Server.	SQLite
APPSETTINGSPATH	Path where the installer writes appsettings.json when it does not already exist.	Machine: %ProgramData%\PowerShellUniversal\appsettings.json; per-user: %LocalAppData%\PowerShellUniversal\appsettings.json
INSTALLTYPE	Sets the Mode value written to appsettings.json. Desktop writes Desktop mode; any other value writes Server mode.	Server
STARTSERVICE	Starts the PowerShell Universal Windows service after installation. This does not apply to per-user installs because they do not install a Windows service.	Machine: 1; per-user: 0
SERVICEACCOUNT	Fully qualified Windows service account, such as CONTOSO\psu_svc. Leave blank to run as Local System. Machine-wide installs only.	Empty (Local System)
SERVICEACCOUNTPASSWORD	Password for SERVICEACCOUNT. The installer masks this value in its log. Machine-wide installs only.	Empty
OPENBROWSER	Opens the web UI after the Windows service starts successfully. Machine-wide installs only.	1
ADDPSMODULEPATH	Adds the PowerShell Universal module directory to PSModulePath.	1
TELEMETRY	Enables anonymous telemetry collection.	1
STARTUPSHORTCUT	Creates a startup shortcut for a per-user installation.	Per-user: 1

Example

The example below runs a silent, machine-wide MSI installation without starting the service. The account and password values are examples only.

Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList '/i "C:\Installers\PowerShellUniversal.msi" /q /norestart /L*V "C:\Logs\powershell-universal-msi.log" MSIINSTALLPERUSER=0 STARTSERVICE=0 SERVICEACCOUNT=CONTOSO\psu_svc SERVICEACCOUNTPASSWORD=ReplaceWithASecurePassword' -Wait -NoNewWindow

ZIP Install

You can also download the ZIP from our Downloads page if you would like to xcopy deploy the files on Windows or Linux.

Windows

You can start Universal by unzipping the contents, unblocking the files and then executing Universal.Server.exe.

Expand-Archive -Path .\Universal.zip -DestinationPath .\Universal
Get-ChildItem .\Universal -Recurse | Unblock-File
Start-Process .\Universal\Universal.Server.exe

Linux

You can use the following command line on Linux to install and start PowerShell Universal:

wget -O psu.zip https://cdn.devolutions.net/download/Devolutions.PowerShellUniversal.linux-x64.2026.3.0.0.zip
sudo apt install unzip
unzip psu.zip -d PSU
chmod +x ./PSU/Universal.Server
./PSU/Universal.Server

Linux Service

You can use systemd to start PowerShell Universal as a service. The below script is an example of downloading a version of PowerShell Universal and installing it as a service:

# ----
# This script will install PowerShell Universal on Linux as a service
# This has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04 (ARM64) on a Raspberry Pi 4
# ----
# Dependencies:
# wget
# unzip
#
# Make sure they are installed
# ----

# These are used to derive the download URL
PSU_VERSION="2026.3.0.0" # Change this to the desired version
PSU_ARCH="arm64" # Change this to your desired architecture
PSU_FILE="Devolutions.PowerShellUniversal.linux-${PSU_ARCH}.${PSU_VERSION}.zip"
PSU_URL="https://cdn.devolutions.net/download/${PSU_FILE}"

# These are used for installing PowerShell Universal
# If you'd like to use a different path, change this
PSU_PATH="/opt/psuniversal"
PSU_EXEC="${PSU_PATH}/Universal.Server"

# These are for installing it as a service
PSU_SERVICE="psuniversal"
PSU_USER="psuniversal"

# ----
# BEGIN
# ----

echo "Creating $PSU_PATH and granting access to $USER"
sudo mkdir $PSU_PATH
sudo setfacl -m "u:${USER}:rwx" $PSU_PATH

echo "Creating user $PSU_USER and making it the owner of $PSU_PATH"
sudo useradd $PSU_USER -m
sudo chown $PSU_USER -R $PSU_PATH

echo "Downloading PowerShell Universal $PSU_VERSION ($PSU_ARCH)"
wget -q $PSU_URL -O $PSU_FILE

echo "Extracting PSU files to $PSU_PATH"
unzip -o -qq $PSU_FILE -d $PSU_PATH

echo "Make $PSU_EXEC executable"
sudo chmod +x $PSU_EXEC

echo "Creating service configuration"
cat <<EOF > ~/$PSU_SERVICE.service
[Unit]
Description=PowerShell Universal
[Service]
ExecStart=$PSU_EXEC
SyslogIdentifier=psuniversal
User=$PSU_USER
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

echo "Creating and starting service"
sudo cp -f ~/$PSU_SERVICE.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable $PSU_SERVICE
sudo systemctl start $PSU_SERVICE
sudo systemctl status $PSU_SERVICE --no-pager

# If you don't use UFW, you can comment this out
echo "Allow port 5000/tcp"
sudo ufw allow 5000/tcp

# ----
# END
# ----

PowerShell Module

You can use the PowerShell Universal PowerShell module to install the Universal server. To install the module, use Install-Module.

Install-Module Devolutions.PowerShellUniversal

To install the Universal server, you can use Install-PSUServer.

Install-PSUServer -LatestVersion

Running this command on Windows creates and starts a Windows service on your machine. Running this command on Linux creates and starts a systemd service on your machine. Running this command on Mac OS downloads and extracts the PowerShell Universal server.

Docker

See the Docker page.

IIS Install

Please visit the IIS hosting documentation for information on how to configure PowerShell Universal as an IIS website.

Antivirus Configuration

PowerShell Universal takes full advantage of PowerShell and the PowerShell SDK. It includes PowerShell scripts directly in the product. Consider configuring antivirus to allow execution of PowerShell scripts in PowerShell Universal.

Directories

The following directories contain examples from a standard Windows system of scripts and executable files that you may need to exclude from antivirus checks. Changing paths within appsettings.json or within the installer requires changing which directories are excluded.

Path	Description
%ProgramData%\PowerShellUniversal	Contains log files and appsettings.json
%ProgramData%\UniversalAutomation	Contains PowerShell scripts and artifacts. Contains the single file database when not using SQL integration.
%ProgramFiles%\Universal	Contains PowerShell Universal application executables, libraries and modules.

Executables

It may be necessary to exclude certain executables that run PowerShell scripts. The below is a list of executables that run PowerShell from PowerShell Universal.

Name	Description
Universal.Server.exe	The PowerShell Universal core service.
PowerShellUniversal.Host.exe	The PowerShell Universal host environment executable.
pwsh.exe	PowerShell 7.x
PowerShell.exe	PowerShell 5.x

Default Admin Name and Password

You can use the $ENV:PSUDefaultAdminName and $ENV:PSUDefaultAdminPassword environment variables to change this behavior. These values are only used if no administrator account already exists. This is useful for cloud-based installations.

Agent

The PowerShell Universal Agent executes Event Hub actions. Install it depending on your environment:

Windows (MSI)

The PowerShell Universal Agent MSI is on our download page. After installing the MSI, a PowerShell Universal Agent service runs on your machine. Configure it to connect to PowerShell Universal.

ZIP

ZIP files for each platform we support are on our downloads page. Each ZIP contains a PSUAgent.exe or PSUAgent file that can start an agent. Run the process as a service for it to start whenever the machine reboots.

Docker

The devolutions/powershell-universal-agent:latest container image provides the PowerShell Universal Agent as a Linux docker container.

docker pull devolutions/powershell-universal-agent:latest

Next Steps

At this point, Universal is up and running. Visit http://localhost:5000 or your default port to navigate to the admin console. Log in with the default admin name and password or create a default admin account.