A colleague figured it out:
Apparently, .NET 4+ comes with an all new common language runtime: the CLR4
This runtime uses its own assemblies loaded from a new assembly cache located at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly
.
The System.Management.Automation version 3.0.0.0
, which will automatically use PowerShell 3.0, exists for the CLR4 only. Because I configured my application to run under .NET 3.5, it would use the old CLR2 and could not even see the newer assembly.
To make sure the application would still run on .NET 3.5, add this to the App.config
file in the project folder:
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0"/>
<supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
If CLR4 is available, it'll load the according GAC, find a policy file that redirects all references to System.Management.Automation version 1.0.0.0
to version 3.0.0.0
and the PowerShell-Modules work as expected.
If you only have .NET 3.5, the older version will be loaded; PowerShell still works, but only up to version 2.0.