Installation and Update

Installing on Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016

Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 make installing and updating PowerShell modules extremely simple by providing Install-Module and Update-Module cmdlets. Unfortunately there are some complications specific to Pester, that we cannot avoid.

Pester version 3.4.0 ships as part of Windows 10 and Windows server 2016, and that distribution conflicts with the standard module update mechanism. It is not possible to update the built-in Pester to newer version, using the Update-Module cmdlet.

Instead you need to perform a new side-by-side installation of Pester. You are also required to skip publisher check, and force the installation, because Install-Module detects the current installation of Pester is signed with a different signature than the one you are installing.

Here's the command you need to run as administrator in order to get the latest version of Pester:

Install-Module -Name Pester -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

For any subsequent update it is enough to run:

Update-Module -Name Pester

Installing on earlier versions of Windows: