PowerShell Team
Automating the world one-liner at a time…
Latest posts
DSC Resource Kit Update
We've just updated the DSC Resource Kit for April! Since our last update in February, there have been 107 merged pull requests with 49 closed issues. Thanks to our wonderful community, the DSC Resource Kit now consists of 279 resources! We have updated 21 DSC modules which include 6 new resources. The updated modules are: For a detailed list of what resources and fixes have been implemented, see the "What Has Recently Been Released?" section below. We strongly encourage you to update to the newest version of all modules using the PowerShell Gallery, and don't forge...
Bash for Windows: Why it’s awesome and what it means for PowerShell
This week at Build, Microsoft announced that we will be enabling you to run "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" as a developer tool for Windows 10. It will natively support Ubuntu userspace and GNU/Linux utilities, including the apt-get package manager that you can use to pull down additional tools like Ruby, emacs, etc. from Canonical's official repositories.We're really excited to run Bash on Windows 10. I'm personally a huge fan of GNU/Linux, and many members of the PowerShell team also have a strong *nix background. While working with OSS projects, there are numerous quick scenarios where it's immensely useful to dro...
Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 RTM is now available via the Microsoft Update Catalog
The PowerShell Team is happy to announce the availability of WMF 5.0 RTM via the Microsoft Update Catalog, bringing the improvements delivered in WMF 5.0 to large-scale deployments. IT Administrators can now use existing tools such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), or System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to install WMF 5.0 RTM across all of the systems. You can to search for the WMF 5.0 packages in the Microsoft Update Catalog using the following KB numbers: Important Note: Before installing the WMF 5.0 packages, please ensure: We hope that this new delivery channel will remove...
Debugging PowerShell DSC Class Resources
Update: I neglected to mention that the DSC resource debugging enabling Cmdlet, Enable-DscDebug, is available only in the Technical Preview 5 release and this was not available when this blog was first published. My sincerest apologies for that. Fortunately this release is now available at: System Center 2016 Preview and Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 released Traditionally PowerShell script debugging has been limited to script running inside the PowerShell console or ISE (Integrated Script Environment), which means you are limited to debugging script that you can see and is running in...
Package Management Preview – March 2016 for PowerShell 4 & 3 is now available
We’re excited to announce the availability of Package Management related PowerShell modules targeted for PowerShell 4 and PowerShell 3. The MSI based installer can be downloaded from Microsoft Download Center! This preview consists of modules PackageManagement (formerly known as OneGet) and PowerShellGet. The versions of these modules include the functionality of those that shipped with WMF 5.0 RTM. Since this preview contains only PowerShell modules, you do not need to reboot after installation. This preview installs exclusively on systems running PowerShell 4 or PowerShell 3 only. This preview will not instal...
Announcing the Underhanded PowerShell Contest
In an effort to improve the validation capability of PowerShell Script Analyzer, we are running a series of contests. We want you - the community members - to help us identify underhanded PowerShell scripts, and then create rules to catch them. There are specific areas where Script Analyzer rules are needed and we need your skills to help us hone them. What is underhanded PowerShell code? Basically, code that is designed to do something the user would not intend, or takes actions that are not apparent to someone who would casually read the code. For example, an underhanded approach to running ‘[System.Runtime.Int...
ARM DSC Extension Settings
Update for the latest information regarding DSC Extension, refer to the product documentation. .......... Overview This is the schema for the settings portion of the Azure DSC extension in an ARM template. Fast Reference Details Settings vs. ProtectedSettings All of these settings will be saved in a settings text file on your VM. Properties under 'settings' are considered public properties because they will not be encrypted in the settings text file. Properties under 'protectedSettings' will be encrypted with a certificate and will not be shown in plain text in this file on your VM. So, if your configur...
The PowerShell Gallery Is Public
We are excited to announce that, as of today, the PowerShell Gallery has changed from Preview to Public. In July 2015, we announced and opened the PowerShell Gallery for public contributions. Since then, we have seen rapid growth in the number of modules, scripts, and users using the gallery - Thank you to those who contributed so far! We’d like to share with you some of the current gallery community stats: 1856 registered users 567 unique modules and scripts 97,400 page views per month 180,000 downloads last month 821,000 downloads total As part of this update, we added features to scan submissions using...
Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 RTM packages has been republished
Today, we have republished the Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 RTM packages for Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 2008 R2 SP1, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7 SP1 to Microsoft Download Center. These packages replace previously released WMF 5.0 RTM packages and WMF 5.0 Production Preview packages. Important Note: For systems running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, you’ll need WMF 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.5 or higher installed to run WMF 5.0. We want to extend our sincere thanks to the PowerShell Community for your continued patience and support while we were addressing the PSModul...