PowerShell Team
Automating the world one-liner at a time…
Latest posts
DSC Resource Kit Release May 2017
We just released the DSC Resource Kit! This release includes updates to 10 DSC resource modules including 3 new resources. In these past 6 weeks, 60 pull requests have been merged and 58 issues have been closed, all thanks to our amazing community! The modules updated in this release are: UPDATE - xDFS has now also been released. Release notes can be found on the PowerShell Gallery here. xStorage, xNetworking, and xCertificate have also just been released again to fix a conflict when using the modules together. PSDscResources is also in the pipeline for release, but it is curre...
Coming Soon – PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell
At BUILD 2017, we announced the preview of Azure Cloud Shell supporting the Bash shell. We are adding PowerShell support to Azure Cloud Shell, which gives you a choice of shell to get work done. Sign-up today to participate in a limited preview of PowerShell in Azure Cloud Shell. We look forward to sharing this awesome new PowerShell experience with you! Hemant Mahawar - @HemanMahawar Principal Program Manager PowerShell Team
Windows 10 Creators Update and PowerShell DSC
For those of you who are using or planning to update the Windows 10 Creators Update, we want to make you aware of some issues that we have discovered in DSC. The following scenario is an issue in this release: We have a fix for this issue and are working diligently to get it released as soon as possible. We will let you know in a few days when you can expect to get your hands on the fix. We are also investigating some other potential issues with DSC while running in Strict Mode and will reply to this post when we know more. Mark Gray Senior Program Manager The PowerShell Team
Announcing PowerShell for Visual Studio Code 1.0!
Today we are extremely excited to announce that the PowerShell extension for Visual Studio Code has reached version 1.0! We are shipping this update to line up with the PowerShell Core 6.0 Beta.1 release to provide the official PowerShell development experience for all supported platforms: Feature Overview We've been working hard over the last year and a half to put together a first-class development experience for PowerShell that includes the following features: You can find instructions for installing VS Code and the PowerShell extension at our GitHub repo. You can also watc...
PowerShell Core 6 Beta.1 Release
Approximately 9 months ago, we announced PowerShell Core 6 on GitHub being not only Open Source, but also cross platform. Today, I'm proud to announce we are moving out of alpha and into beta! We realize that moving a technology that started in Windows to Linux has to fit in properly to be accepted and provide a great experience across all platforms. We appreciate all the great feedback -- keep it coming! You can download and read the change log from our usual release page. If you've previously followed the steps to register the packages.microsoft.com Linux repository (see distro specific links below), you ...
OpenSSH Security Testing Kick Off
Over the past while, we’ve been very busy porting OpenSSH to Win32. We’ve been working with the OpenSSH community in our GitHub repository, and are nearing a point where we are taking steps to make it production ready. Security is obviously something that we have focused on during every phase of the project. As part of this production readiness phase, however, we are additionally funding an extensive penetration test. We have engaged Casaba Security as part of this effort, who will be digging deep into the implementation over the next 1-2 months. As with all aspects of this project, one of our main goals is t...
DSC Configuration Sharing
The community around DSC Resources has been inspiring. The PowerShell Gallery now includes more than 2000 modules/scripts. 181 of those are modules focused on DSC, that collectively include 766 DSC Resources. With this many building blocks available, it has become easier and faster to get a DSC project through the proof of concept phase to production-ready Windows Servers built using Configuration As Code. When the author is new to DSC, their first configuration is a complex learning experience. The modules containing DSC Resources often have an /Examples folder with Configuration scripts showing how to use...
DSC Resource Kit Release April 2017
We just released the DSC Resource Kit! This release includes updates to 5 DSC resource modules, including 3 new DSC resources. In these past 6 weeks, 57 pull requests have been merged and 46 issues have been closed, all thanks to our amazing community! The modules updated in this release are: For a detailed list of the resource modules and fixes in this release, see the Included in this Release section below. Our last community call for the DSC Resource Kit was last week on April 12. A recording of our updates as well as summarizing notes are available. Join us next time on May 24 to ask que...
A Comparison of Shell and Scripting Language Security
PowerShell Security is a topic on everybody's mind. Most of all - ours. As PowerShell has become more popular with Administrators, it has also become more popular for unauthorized administrators - also known as "Attackers". In any operating system or platform, the power and efficiency you provide to authorized administrators is also available to unauthorized administrators. For example, Unix, Linux, and Mac all have dozens of powerful built in compilers, scripting languages, and debuggers. It's a power user's dream, but also a liability. The PowerShell team has recognized this double-edged sword since the intro...