PowerShell 2.0 Comes to Windows Vista

On July 22, 2009, with the RTM of Windows 7, Microsoft also released to manufacturing PowerShell 2.0, with the promise that work was underway to make the solution available for previous releases of Windows. The first step to backporting PowerShell 2.0 to operating systems such as Windows Vista has been made. Microsoft is now offering for download the Release Candidate Build of PowerShell 2.0 for Vista and Windows Server 2008 via Connect, as an integral component of the Windows Management Framework RC Preview. According to the Software giant, the Windows Management Framework RC Preview is designed to provide users of Vista and Windows Server 2008 with the same updated management functionality that has been added to the latest Windows client and server releases, namely Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

“PowerShell 2.0 - Microsoft Windows PowerShell is a new command-line shell and scripting language designed for system administration and automation. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications,” Microsoft noted.

There are two additional components to the Windows Management Framework RC Preview on top of version 2.0 of PowerShell: Windows Remote Management 2.0 (WinRM) and Background Intelligent Transfer Service 4.0 (BITS). Both are also in RC stage and of course available for download through Microsoft Connect as part of the WMF.

“WinRM 2.0 - Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is the Microsoft implementation of the WS-Management protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)-based protocol that allows hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. The WS-Management protocol specification provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across an IT infrastructure,” Microsoft stated.

All packages offered by the Redmond company as part of WMF RC come with localized variants for English (en-US), German (de-DE), and Japanese (ja-JP). It is important to note that the releases are designed to integrate exclusively with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft acknowledged the fact that Windows XP SP3 and Windows 2003 SP2 packages were missing, but promised that they would be offered in the future.

“BITS 4.0 - Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is a service that transfers files between a client and a server. BITS provides a simple way to reliably and politely transfer files over HTTP or HTTPS. Both downloads and uploads are supported. Unlike other protocols that transfer files in the foreground, BITS transfers files in the background (by default). Background transfers use only idle network bandwidth in an effort to preserve the user’s interactive experience with other network applications, such as Internet Explorer. Foregound (or normal) transfers are also supported,” the company added.

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