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.

Thanks to everyone that made this release possible, including our contributors, users, and anyone who filed issues and submitted feedback.

Just give me the bits!

For info on installing PowerShell Core 6.1, check out our installation docs.

What’s new?

We’ve released a slew of new features in 6.1, including:

• Compatibility with 1900+ existing cmdlets in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019
• Built on top of .NET Core 2.1
• Support for the latest versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux (see below)
• Significant performance improvements
  • Markdown cmdlets
• Experimental feature flags

For a more in-depth look at what’s included, take a look at our release notes, or for a complete list of changes, check out our CHANGELOG on GitHub.

Operating system support

You can always find an up-to-date list of support operating systems and PowerShell Core versions at https://aka.ms/pslifecycle.

On release, PowerShell Core 6.1 supports:

• Windows 7/8.1/10
• Windows Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2/2016 (and 2019 on release)
• Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC)
• macOS 10.12+
• Ubuntu 14.04/16.04/18.04
• Debian 8.7+/9
• CentOS 7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
• OpenSUSE 42.3
• Fedora 27/28

Platforms with unofficial “community” support also include:

• Ubuntu 18.10
• Arch Linux
• Raspbian (ARM32)
• Kali Linux
• Alpine (experimental Docker image coming soon)

How can I provide feedback?

As always, you can file issues on GitHub to let us know about any features you’d like added or bugs that you encounter. Additionally, you can join us for the PowerShell Community Call on the 3rd Thursday of every month. The Community Call is a great opportunity to talk directly to the team, hear about the latest developments in PowerShell, and to voice your opinions into ongoing feature design.

Of course, we’re always looking for contributions that make PowerShell better. We love when our community helps out with code contributions, but you don’t have to be a rockstar developer to make a difference in PowerShell, as we’re also happy to accept test and documentation contributions as well.

Thanks, and enjoy PowerShell 6.1!

Joey Aiello Program Manager, PowerShell