Car menu example

A minimal arrow-key navigation menu for Windows PowerShell. Pick a favourite car, then a colour, and the script prints your choices.

Compatible with Windows PowerShell 5.1 and later (including PowerShell 7). Uses only APIs available in 5.1.

Files

File	Description
car-menu-example.ps1	Runnable script
car-menu-example.README.md	This file

Requirements

• Windows PowerShell 5.1+ or PowerShell 7+
• An interactive console (Windows Terminal, powershell.exe, or pwsh.exe)

The script uses [Console]::ReadKey and will not work when stdin is redirected or when there is no real console (for example, some IDE “Run” panels).

Run

& "$HOME\car-menu-example.ps1"

Or with the full path:

& 'C:\Users\Mark.MH-LAPTOP1\car-menu-example.ps1'

Controls

Key	Action
Up	Move highlight up
Down	Move highlight down
Enter	Select the highlighted option

The current choice is shown with a > prefix and a cyan highlight.

Flow

1. Main menu — “What is your favourite car?” (6 options)
2. Sub menu — “What colour is your car?” (4 options)
3. Summary — Prints car and colour, then exits

Example output:

You selected:
  Car:   Porsche 911
  Color: Blue

Goodbye.

Customize

Edit the option arrays at the bottom of car-menu-example.ps1:

• $cars — main menu (6 items)
• $colors — sub menu (4 items)

Reuse Show-ArrowMenu for other menus:

$choice = Show-ArrowMenu -Title 'Pick one' -Options @('A', 'B', 'C')

How it works

Show-ArrowMenu clears the screen, redraws all options with one row highlighted, and reads a single key per loop via [System.Console]::ReadKey($true). Enter returns the highlighted string to the caller.