PowerShell / PowerShell/vscode-powershell
Extension preloads DLLs even tho the modules are not used
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Description
Prerequisites
- I have written a descriptive issue title.
- I have searched all issues to ensure it has not already been reported.
- I have read the troubleshooting guide.
- I am sure this issue is with the extension itself and does not reproduce in a standalone PowerShell instance.
- I have verified that I am using the latest version of Visual Studio Code and the PowerShell extension.
- If this is a security issue, I have read the security issue reporting guidance.
Summary
I am not sure if this is something that can be fixed, but it's been showing up for me very often, a lot for PowerShell 7.3, never for PowerShell 5.1 and sometimes for newer PowerShell versions.
I develop my modules in VSCode. Once I'm happy with the module that it works enough I combine everything, including DLLs, and push it to standard PowerShell module folders so my apps can use it. This is my so-called "production" version that I know works correctly and can be publish to psgallery. But then I continue working with the non-production version in VSCode.
Whenever I open PowerShell 7 and do Import-Module .\Mymodule.psd1 -Force it claims the DLLs are already loaded.

Of course the warning comes from my PSM1 where I explicitly detect the error when I try to do Add-Type and prevent it.
I tried tracking it - Whenever I open PowerShell 7 (doesn't seem to show up in 5.1) it seems that it already preloads DLL's. I can see this with:
[System.AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies() | Where-Object Location | Sort-Object -Property FullName | Select-Object -Property FullName, Location, GlobalAssemblyCache, IsFullyTrusted
It doesn't happen all the time, but enough time for me to notice. Those DLL's have now loaded

But the module itself did not:

My understanding is - it happens when I switch between files (just by reading them), not even running and loads DLL's in the background making a problem for development (assuming that I would like to change DLL version for example). So my guess is VSCode PowerShell wants to help me - but at the same time it impacts module development.
While I can deal with it internally I'm guessing a lot of other people may not be as happy.
PowerShell Version
Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 7.3.0-preview.3
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.3.0-preview.3
OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.22000
Platform Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0
Visual Studio Code Version
1.66.1
8dfae7a5cd50421d10cd99cb873990460525a898
x64
Extension Version
ms-vscode.?[7mpowershell?[0m@2021.12.0
ms-vscode.?[7mpowershell?[0m-preview@2022.3.1
tobysmith568.run-in-?[7mpowershell?[0m@1.1.1
TylerLeonhardt.vscode-inline-values-?[7mpowershell?[0m@0.0.5
Steps to Reproduce
As described above.
Visuals
No response
Logs
No response
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
No files, tests, or entry points are named. Reproduce by opening PowerShell 7, switching between module files, inspecting loaded assemblies with the provided command, and importing the module; done means identifying why unused DLLs preload and preventing that behavior without breaking module support.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- powershell, typescript, vscode
- Domain
- developer-experience, devtools
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100