User context, don't install to `%OneDriveCommercial%` if OneDrive for Business Known Folder Move (KFM) is enabled

[o-l-a-v]

Summary of the new feature / enhancement

Behavior today

Default install location for PowerShell scripts and modules when specifying user context, is:

• Windows PowerShell: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
• PowerShell Core: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\PowerShell\Modules

But if you have OneDrive for Business set up with Known Folder Move (KFM), default install location for user context is:

• Windows PowerShell: %OneDriveCommercial%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
• PowerShell Core: %OneDriveCommercial%\Documents\PowerShell\Modules

Why is it a problem

This is not ideal, as you'll end up with hundreds or thousands of small files that will be synced up and down to OneDrive, which might cause OneDrive sync issues, and other performance hits.

I currently install all modules to AllUsers scope for this reason. Currently 2.7 GB, 12 617 files, 2 315 folders.

Screenshot

If I did not care about this myself, I'd be using more than 1 / 10 of the capacity / max number of files recommendation for the OneDrive client, just for PowerShell modules.

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/64883a5d-228e-48f5-b3d2-eb39e07630fa?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us#synctoomany

Proposed technical implementation details

In my opinion, there is no reason to install PowerShell modules from PowerShell Gallery to OneDrive by default when KFM is active. A publicly available PowerShell module is nothing unique that needs to be backed up/ synced.

Option 1 - Cmdlet to set PSResourceLocation for Process/User/Machine

Add cmdlet to set PSResourceLocation for scope Process/User/Machine. For instance:

Set-PSResourceLocation -Scope 'Process' -Path ('{0}\Microsoft\PowerShell' -f $env:LOCALAPPDATA)

It could also:

• Add path to [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PSModulePath','<scope>').
• Have a Boolean parameter that specifiec whether to move modules and scripts installed by PackageManagement, PowerShellGet and Microsoft.PowerShell.PSResourceGet from old path given scope to new path.
  • Ask user if parameter wasn't specified.

Option 2 - Use first path in $env:PSModulePath if set

If I've set [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('PSModulePath','User').Split(';')[0] to be somewhere else than the default location for <scope>, use it.

Option 3 - Don't follow KFM redirect

Users must opt in to install PowerShell modules to OneDrive, instead of current default behavior.

• Windows PowerShell: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
• PowerShell Core: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\PowerShell\Modules

Option 4 - Change default location for user scope to %LOCALAPPDATA%

Change default location for user context to:

• Windows PowerShell: %LOCALAPPDATA%\WindowsPowerShell\Modules
• PowerShell Core: %LOCALAPPDATA%\PowerShell\Modules

[SydneyhSmith]

Thanks @o-l-a-v for opening this issue, we are investigating this-- to confirm have you hit this issue with our v3 previews?

[o-l-a-v]

Don't remember if I've tried with v3 yet.

Should be easy enough for you to reproduce? :)

[o-l-a-v]

Tested with beta 3.0.12, it installs to %OneDriveCommercial%\Documents from both Windows PowerShell and PowerShell 7.2.2.

\WindowsPowerShell with Windows PowerShell, \PowerShell with v7.2.2.

• One more thing I noticed: Running the install command under first from Windows PowerShell, then with PowerShell v7.2.2, PowerShellGet says it's alrady installed. But it is really, when it get's installed to a different directory with PowerShell Core vs. Windows PowerShell? IMO, there needs to be some more thinking about both where to install, and detection logic.

# Import module downloaded from PowerShellGallery, extracted with 7-Zip
Import-Module -Name ('{0}\powershellget.3.0.12-beta\PowerShellGet.psd1' -f [System.Environment]::GetFolderPath('Desktop'))

# Check imported modules
Get-Module

# Install a module in user context
PowerShellGet\Install-PSResource -Name 'Az.Cdn' -Scope 'CurrentUser' -Repository 'PSGallery' -Quiet -Confirm:$false -TrustRepository -Reinstall

[o-l-a-v]

Related issues from PowerShell/PowerShell:

• Let's move PSModulePath out of the documents folder PowerShell#15552
• Move PowerShell folder on Windows from ${env:USERPROFILE}\OneDrive\Documents\PowerShell to ${env:USERPROFILE}\.powershell PowerShell#8069

[SydneyhSmith]

Thanks @o-l-a-v we are planning to do a deeper dive into these (and other path) issues after our next release