Powershell Scripts Slow to Load

One of the more unusual issues I have experienced is one where Powershell scripts take a significantly long time to load. After right clicking a .ps1 and selecting 'Run with Powershell', it can take several minutes of waiting on the black shell screen before anything actually happens.

The issue is caused by a setting within Internet Explorer that forces a Certificate Revocation check for the certificate used to sign the code in the Powershell script.

You can turn off this checking by following the steps below.

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Go to Tools > Internet Options
3. Select the Advanced tab
4. Scroll down to the Security section. Uncheck the option to Check for publisher's certificate revocation

For security reasons it is not recommended to leave this setting unchecked, especially if the server has Internet access.

I have come across this problem on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms.