Announcing PowerShell Core 6.1
We’re proud to announce that the
latest version of PowerShell has been released! This marks our second supported release of PowerShell Core, the
open-source edition of PowerShell that works on Linux, macOS, and Windows!
By far, the biggest feature of this
release is compatibility of built-in Windows modules with PowerShell Core. This
means that you can natively run those modules/cmdlets with PowerShell Core and
easily transition from Windows PowerShell. You can see the full post here
PowerShell Gallery
The PowerShell Gallery is the place to find PowerShell code that is shared by the community, Microsoft, and other companies. The site has averaged over 21 million downloads per month for the past 6 months and has more than 3,800 unique packages available for use. It’s amazing when we consider we were handling just under 4 million downloads in July 2017. We clearly needed to invest in the PowerShell Gallery to support that kind of growth.
We have been working for some time to improve the performance of
the PowerShell Gallery. The result is now available to everyone, and includes
new features, performance enhancements, security improvements to accounts and
publishing keys, and better alignment with the NuGet.org codebase that we rely
on for our service and cmdlets
New features and performance enhancements
Most users should see an improvement in package download speeds from the PowerShell Gallery. The new release takes advantage of CDN to provide faster downloads, particularly for those outside the United States. This should be most noticeable when installing a module with many dependencies.
The new updates include things users have requested for a long time, including:
- A manual
download option from the PowerShell Gallery. It cannot replace
install-module / install-script but does solve some specific issues for
those with private repositories or older versions of PowerShell.
- A change to Install-Module and
Install-Script to simply install to the current user scope when not
running in an elevated PowerShell session.
The new user experience is more than just a face-lift, as providing a modern UI also improves the performance. The PowerShell Gallery pages now display only the most critical information initially, and move the details to expanding sections in the UI. This makes the pages faster and easier for users to find the content they want to see. You can see the full post here
PowerShell
Training Resources
Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA) is a logical first-stop when searching for sources of free learning. A search for "powershell" on the main page of the MVA website returns 68 hits, 13 of which include PowerShell in the course title. Other highly rated courses include Getting Started with PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC), Advanced Tools & Scripting with PowerShell: 3.0 Tools That Make Changes and Advanced PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) and Custom Resources. To go to the MVA click here.
PowerShell.org Supporting
all platforms and languages that use PowerShell, this site's Videos section
provides links to the organization's PowerShell on YouTube channel (with more
than 100 videos) as well as a few structured learning courses. You'll also find
pointers to a whole slew of lengthy articles and tutorials on PowerShell in the
site's eBooks section. The Build
Server section lets you sign up for virtual instances of PowerShell
for testing and learning purposes. And while you're on the PowerShell.org site,
be sure to browse the articles and forums, both of which are good sources of
PowerShell how-to information
Windows PowerShell Survival Guide: This is perhaps the motherlode of resources — Microsoft's list of lists for PowerShell. To go to this tool click here
