How to start powershell with a window title?

Question

I have a batch file that allows me to go to particular folder based on my input.

d:
cd d:\test\bits
@ECHO off
cls
:start
ECHO.
ECHO 1. Perl
ECHO 2. Python
set choice=
set /p choice=type in number to go to appropriate code folder:
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto pl
if '%choice%'=='2' goto py
ECHO "%choice%" is not valid, try again
ECHO.
goto start
:pl
cd code\pl
goto end
:py
cd code\py
goto end
:end
start "bits"

At the end of execution, a command prompt window with the title "bits" opens up and is in the specified directory corresponding to the input choice. This is all good. But I want to have the same thing done with Powershell.

If, instead of start "bits" , I put, start powershell , in the last line, I can get Powershell console to open. By doing this, I have two issues.

1. Powershell console is still in d:\test\bits folder and not in the one I intended it to go.
2. I cannot get the title to be bits

How do I get the functionality I want with Powershell?

Answer 1

From what I expected and what I was able to reproduce with your script, the current directory is set to the intended one ( d:\\test\\bits\\code\\pl if I enter 1)

For the title part, you can do the following:

start powershell -NoExit -command "$Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = 'bits'"

Answer 2

If you add this to your powershell profile.ps1 you can get the window title to show the current running script and if you are just opening a window with no script then 'pwsh' will be displayed.

Will be systematic with no need to add a line on top of each script. The other answers combined with $MyInvocation.MyCommand seem to give the name of the profile.ps1 instead when running a script from the context menu.

This can also be tweaked to change the result.

[console]::title = Split-Path -Leaf ([Environment]::GetCommandLineArgs()[-1]).Replace('pwsh.dll','pwsh')

Works on both PS 5 and 7. For ver. 5 replace pwsh.dll by powershell.exe

Answer 3

You can start PowerShell with a custom window title using the Start-Process cmdlet and passing the -WindowTitle parameter. Here's an example:

sql

Start-Process powershell.exe -WindowTitle "My Custom Window Title"

This will start a new PowerShell window with the specified window title. You can replace "My Custom Window Title" with any string you like as the window title.