Did I miss a succinct definition of Execution Policy?

[potatoqualitee]

I was hoping to reference this article for a book, but I did not find a succinct definition of an execution policy. Imagine if the phrase Execution Policy were replaced by an unknown term such as Spiriduso. At no point would we ever understand what a Spiriduso is. We are told what it does, and what it lets you do, but not what it is.

PowerShell spiridusos let you determine the conditions under which PowerShell loads configuration files and runs scripts.

On a Windows computer you can set a spiridusos for the local computer, for the current user, or for a particular session. You can also use a Group Policy setting to set spiridusos for computers and users.

If the first sentence is indeed a definition, I suppose my issue is that it is not a helpful definition. I would not define a cat as an object that allows me to pet it under specific conditions. Then again, a cat's policies would outline those conditions so perhaps that is a poor comparison.

Execution policies are hard to explain, especially because we're told they are for safety but not for security. Because it is so challenging, can someone provide a more detailed definition along with more context? Ultimately, my issue is that the Short and Long Descriptions are not helpful to me as a PowerShell user and would not help me explain what Execution Policies are to others.

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Document Details

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• ID: c4745d24-83a7-d977-051a-c5a46123cdcd
• Version Independent ID: cfa0b0d5-be1f-b9d2-533d-61bfa6051292
• Content: about_Execution_Policies
• Content Source: reference/6/Microsoft.PowerShell.Core/About/about_Execution_Policies.md
• Product: powershell
• Technology: powershell-cmdlets
• GitHub Login: @SteveL-MSFT
• Microsoft Alias: slee

[sdwheeler]

PowerShell's execution policy is a safety feature that controls the conditions
under which PowerShell loads configuration files and runs scripts. This feature
help prevent the the loading and running of malicious scripts.

[doctordns]

Do you mean:
This feature helps prevent the loading and running of malicious scripts.

And since we are being pedantic - Not sure what loading means. I think the sentence could better read:
This feature helps to prevent the execution of malicious scripts.

[sdwheeler]

Updated #4094

[potatoqualitee]

thanks everyone!