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).

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.)