Fix “Running Scripts Is Disabled on This System” in PowerShell

To fix “running scripts is disabled on this system” in PowerShell, set the execution policy to RemoteSigned for your account. It doesn’t need admin rights:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

The error means the effective policy is Restricted, which is the default on Windows client PCs. Below I reproduce it, check every policy scope, and show fixes from a single run to a permanent change, tested in PowerShell 7.6 and 5.1.

What the error looks like

I started a window with the Restricted policy and ran a simple script. PowerShell refused to load it:

$shell = (Get-Process -Id $PID).Path
$output = & $shell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Restricted -File C:\psfaqs\Scripts\Get-Greeting.ps1 2>&1 |
    ForEach-Object { $_.ToString() } | Out-String
$text = ($output -replace "$([char]27)\[[0-9;]*m", '' -replace '\s+', ' ')
'Result: Failed.'
[regex]::Match($text, 'File \S+ cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system\.').Value

Output:

Result: Failed.
File C:\psfaqs\Scripts\Get-Greeting.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system.

Restricted allows commands you type but no script files at all, not even ones you wrote yourself.

Check your execution policy at every scope

The policy can be set in five places, and the first one that isn’t Undefined wins, from top to bottom:

$env:PSExecutionPolicyPreference = $null
$shell = (Get-Process -Id $PID).Path

& $shell -NoProfile -Command { Get-ExecutionPolicy -List } |
    ForEach-Object { '{0,-13} {1}' -f $_.Scope, $_.ExecutionPolicy }

Output:

MachinePolicy Undefined
UserPolicy    Undefined
Process       Undefined
CurrentUser   RemoteSigned
LocalMachine  RemoteSigned

PowerShell 7 and Windows PowerShell 5.1 keep their LocalMachine policies separately, so they can differ, as they do on my PC. Check the shell you actually use.

Scope	Who sets it	Lasts
MachinePolicy / UserPolicy	Group Policy	Until the policy changes; you can’t override it
Process	-ExecutionPolicy or -Scope Process	Only the current PowerShell process
CurrentUser	You, no admin needed	Permanently, for your account
LocalMachine	An administrator	Permanently, for everyone on the PC

Fix 1: Allow scripts for your account

RemoteSigned runs scripts you create locally and requires a signature only for scripts downloaded from the internet. It’s the right choice for most people:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

On Windows 11, the same setting is in Settings > System > For developers, under PowerShell. If a downloaded script still won’t run afterward, see the file is not digitally signed.

Fix 2: Allow scripts for the current window only

-Scope Process changes the policy just for this PowerShell session, whi