What Visual Studio Does

When you add a PowerShell project to a solution in Visual Studio you are offered the choice of creating a PowerShell Module Project or a *PowerShell Script Project.**

PowerShell Module Project

VS creates a script module (.psm1 file), a module manifest (.psd1 file) and a tests script (.test.ps1 file)

PowerShell Script Project

VS creates a script (.ps1 file)

PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio

This is the basic PowerShell extension to Visual Studio, and is the version I discuss here. It can be installed in Visual Studio by selecting Tools/Extensions and Updates… in the VS menu, then selecting Online and typing powershell in the Search box, and typing powershell and enter. PowerShell Tools for Visual Studio should be at the top of the list. Click on Download and follow the directions.

PowerShell Pro Tools for Visual Studio

This is an enhanced extension that adds a number of powerful tools for manipulating PowerShell modules. There is a small overlap between the tools I will be describing and those provided by this extension.