Activating an environment fails because running powershell scripts is disabled by default on Windows

Environment data

• VS Code version: 1.27.1 (user setup)
• Extension version (available under the Extensions sidebar): 2018.8.0
• OS and version: Windows 10
• Python version (& distribution if applicable, e.g. Anaconda): Python 3.7…0
• Type of virtual environment used (N/A | venv | virtualenv | conda | …): venv
• Relevant/affected Python packages and their versions: N/A

Actual behavior

Create python terminal results in a powershell error

PS C:\dev\loadtest> & c:/dev/loadtest/env/Scripts/activate.ps1
& : File C:\dev\loadtest\env\Scripts\activate.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170.
At line:1 char:3
+ & c:/dev/loadtest/env/Scripts/activate.ps1
+   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : SecurityError: (:) [], PSSecurityException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

Expected behavior

I don’t need need to disable running scripts in able to use VS code

Steps to reproduce:

1. Fresh install of windows
2. install python
3. create virtual environment
4. try to activate it in VS Code

[d3r3kk]

Hmmm… this feels like it might be a VSCode problem.

To fix the issue, you can simply open a Powershell window as administrator and type the following:

Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

And hit enter, respond y to any prompts that appear.

[dlech]

I was able to work around this problem by adding the following to my VS Code settings:

"terminal.integrated.shellArgs.windows": ["-ExecutionPolicy", "Bypass"]