“Preparing Windows for VCF CLI and Kubectl”

Who this is for

Windows-based vSphere/VCF administrators or Platform Engineers who want to use VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) CLI and Kubernetes tools on a Windows machine.

This guide walks through setting up a Windows admin workstation with all necessary tooling for managing vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) on VCF (9).

What you’ll set up

  1. Install prerequisites (.NET 4.8 for the VCF CLI).
  2. Install PowerShell tooling: Chocolatey, VCF CLI, kubectl, etc.
  3. Enable auto-completion and aliases for CLI commands.
  4. (Optional) Install helpers like PSKubeContext and k9s.
  5. Verify your environment is ready for VCF and Kubernetes commands.

1) Install .NET 4.8 (required for VCF CLI)

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

$DownloadUrl = "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2088631"  # .NET 4.8 installer
$OutputFile = "C:\ndp48-x86-x64-allos-enu.exe"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $DownloadUrl -OutFile $OutputFile -UseBasicParsing -ErrorAction Stop
Start-Process -FilePath $OutputFile -ArgumentList "/quiet","/norestart" -Wait

 • Installs silently in the background.
 • Once complete, reboot your machine (required for .NET to finalize).

2) Prepare PowerShell & Chocolatey

After reboot, open PowerShell (Administrator) again.

Create a PowerShell profile (Skip if you got one or we will overwrite yours)

New-Item -ItemType File -Path $PROFILE -Force

This creates (or resets) your PowerShell profile (where aliases & completions live).

Install Chocolatey (Windows package manager)

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force;
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072;
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

• If PATH isn’t updated immediately, restart PowerShell.

3) Install VCF CLI and kubectl

VCF CLI via Chocolatey

choco install vcf-cli -y

Manual installation (if Chocolatey package unavailable)

$vcfRoot = "C:\Program Files\VCF\"
$vcfVersion = "v9.0.0"
$arch = "amd64"
$url = "https://packages.broadcom.com/artifactory/vcf-distro/vcf-cli/windows/$arch/$vcfVersion/vcf-cli.zip"

if (Test-Path $vcfRoot) { Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $vcfRoot }
$tmp = Join-Path $env:TEMP 'vcf-bootstrap'
if (Test-Path $tmp) { Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $tmp }
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $tmp | Out-Null

$zip = Join-Path $tmp 'vcf-cli.zip'
Invoke-WebRequest $url -OutFile $zip -UseBasicParsing
Expand-Archive $zip -DestinationPath $tmp -Force

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $vcfRoot -Force | Out-Null
Copy-Item (Join-Path $tmp 'vcf-cli-windows_amd64.exe') -Destination (Join-Path $vcfRoot 'vcf.exe') -Force

$currentPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable('Path','Machine')
if ($currentPath -notlike "*$vcfRoot*") {
    [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('Path', "$currentPath;$vcfRoot", 'Machine')
}
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force $tmp
Write-Host "VCF CLI installed to $vcfRoot. Restart PowerShell or run 'refreshenv'."

Install kubectl

choco install kubernetes-cli -y

Check with:

kubectl version --client

Optional tools

choco install k9s -y      # Kubernetes TUI
choco install vscode -y   # VS Code for YAML editing

4) Enhance PowerShell with Auto-Completion & Aliases

Install PSReadLine

Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

Enable VCF CLI completion

vcf completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression
vcf completion powershell | Out-File -Append -Encoding ascii $PROFILE

Enable kubectl alias (k) + completion

Set-Alias -Name k -Value kubectl -Option AllScope

$kubeComp = kubectl completion powershell | Out-String
$kubeComp = $kubeComp -replace "CommandName 'kubectl'", "CommandName @('kubectl','k')"
Invoke-Expression $kubeComp

$marker = '# >>> kubectl-alias-and-completion'
$profilePath = $PROFILE

if (-not (Select-String -Path $profilePath -SimpleMatch $marker)) {
    $persistBlock = @"
$marker
Import-Module PSReadLine
Set-Alias -Name k -Value kubectl -Option AllScope
$($kubeComp.TrimEnd())
# <<< kubectl-alias-and-completion
"@
    Add-Content -Path $profilePath -Value $persistBlock
}

Optional: PSKubeContext (kubectx/kubens equivalents)

Install-Module -Name PSKubeContext -Scope CurrentUser -Force

Add to profile

kubectx/kubens shortcuts and completion

Import-Module PSKubeContext
Set-Alias kubens  Select-KubeNamespace
Set-Alias kns     Select-KubeNamespace
Set-Alias kubectx Select-KubeContext
Set-Alias kctx    Select-KubeContext
Register-PSKubeContextComplete

Reload profile:

. $PROFILE

5) Verify Your Environment

VCF CLI

vcf --help

Try tab completion: vcf context

kubectl & alias

kubectl version --client
k version --client

Try:

k get <Tab><Tab>
kubectx -h
kubens -h

Test k9s

k9s

(Will show UI if a kubeconfig context is configured.)