Unless you’re in a cave deep in the moutains somewhere (in which case you won’t read this anyway!), you know that Microsoft has now released the first beta of Windows 8 client and server. Personally, I downloaded the server beta yesterday and am busy playing with it. Over the weekend, I will load it native on my laptop (brave man that I am).
One of the key features for me of both the server and client editions is the new beta of PowerShell V3. Microsoft has also poduced versions of the PowerShell beta for Vista/Server 2008 and Windows 7/Server 2008 R2. These contain all the same builtin cmdlets as you get with WIndows 8, without the addons only contained in WIndows 8. I am using this build now on my main workstations that are not yet running Windows 8.
You can get these beta builds at http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28998. Note there are separate builds for the 2 OS sets and for 32 vs 64 bit systems. Be careful over which version you download. And read the release notes carefully (when MS publishes them).
So far this new build continues the excellent work done in the past and is rock solid for me, albeit with a few areas where I think there’s more work that needs doing. Performance, for example, in a few places is not what it should be. And the debate over how help should be added into to box continues (I’ll document this issue in a blog post tomorrow). This all bodes very well for V3 being a great addition to the family!
So if you are using an older OS, consider downloading and using the latest PowerShell update. If nothing else, the new ISE is so good, it’s really worth it. Naturally, exercise due caution as this is a beta, etc. Having said that, it’s an excellent next step that I’ve put on all my key machines.
1 comment:
Separate downloads like that have always been a bugbear of mine - I always loved Mark Russinovich's approach with the Sysinternals programs: one file to download/store, whether you're 32 or 64 bits, whatever version of Windows.
The 32-64 bit duality is hard to accommodate within an MSI, frustratingly, but supporting two versions of Windows with one MSI shouldn't be too hard surely.
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