Windows PowerShell Web Access lets you manage your Windows Servers anywhere and anytime.

Windows PowerShell MVPs are excited about Windows PowerShell Web Access. We just had a MVP summit here at Microsoft and I had the pleasure of talking to some of our MVPs. Some of them told me that PowerShell Web Access was the best part of Windows Server 8 Beta!  Wow, that made me feel good.  There are so many awesome things in Windows Server “8” Beta.  Windows PowerShell by itself has several valuable improvements. I don’t know about being the best, but Windows PowerShell Web Access is going to be a hit.

Windows PowerShell Web Access is an IIS web application that provides a Windows PowerShell console in a web browser.  The IIS application acts as a gatway and you can connect through it to any machine in your environment with Windows PowerShell remoting enabled.

Windows PowerShell Web Access has several security layers you can read more about in the Windows  PowerShell Web Access help documentation.  I want to point out that you can create rules to determine who has access to which machines and which endpoints on those machines.

PowerShell Web Access is a new Windows Server feature and detailed installation instructions are available in the Windows PowerShell Web Access help documentation.

Once Windows PowerShell Web Access is installed and configured it will act as a gateway between users on their web browsers and target machines they want to manage.

Many web enabled devices will run Windows PowerShell Web Access. We developed Windows PowerShell Web Access using web standards. HTTPS, Javascript, and cookie support are all you need to use the Windows PowerShell Web Access web application.  There are many devices out there and we didn’t get to test them all. But we did do limited testing on popular devices like the iPhone , Android Phone, and Windows Phone. Try Windows PowerShell Web Access on your favorite device and let us know how it goes!

Windows PowerShell Web Access provides more incentive for you to write Windows PowerShell cmdlets. If you have been debating whether to write Windows PowerShell cmdlets for something, maybe now is the time to get started.  Any cmdlets you write can be exposed via Windows PowerShell Web Access.  So when you write your cmdlets you are developing web based management tools.  Awesome!

Windows PowerShell Web Access is one more way Windows Server 8 is enabling remote multi-machine management.  Now you can access your servers via PowerShell from anywhere.  Would you, would you, on a train?  Would you, could you, on a boat? Try Windows PowerShell Web Access and you may!  You can use it in a house, with a mouse, or anywhere you like.

You can send feedback directly to the Windows PowerShell Web Access feature team via the PowerShell Connect site:

http://connect.microsoft.com/powershell

Mike Emard

Senior Program Manager

Windows PowerShell Web Access

Microsoft Corporation