Month: September 2018

PowerShell Updates

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