PowerShell: Add VMware PowerCLI to PowerShell ISE on demand

I often find my self in need of VMware’s PowerCLI cmdlets, but the PowerCLI console really lack a script editor and IntelliSense support as it builds on the regular PowerShell console.

I could just add the VMware snap-ins to my profile and load them everytime I start PowerShell ISE, but it don’t want to wait for them to load everytime I start it.

Instead I build on my previous post showing how to load your own functions when launching PowerShell (both console and ISE) and create a function to load the snap-ins and initialize the PowerCLI environment that I can call on demand.

function Load-PowerCLI
{
    Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core
    Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Vds
    Add-PSSnapin VMware.VumAutomation
    . "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\vSphere PowerCLI\Scripts\Initialize-PowerCLIEnvironment.ps1"
}

Additionaly I create a function to unload the snap-ins when I no longer need them

function Unload-PowerCLI
{
    Remove-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Remove-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Vds -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    Remove-PSSnapin VMware.VumAutomation -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
}

With those functions in place in my functions folder I can load/unload PowerCLI from any PowerShell instance be that ISE or console. The same approach could easily be taken with any other set of snap-ins, modules etc.