PowerShell Team

Automating the world one-liner at a time…

Validate PowerShell DSC Node Status

This is part of a blog series first referenced here: Validate the new features of PowerShell DSC New Capability A new cmdlet is available named Get-DscConfigurationStatus. This cmdlet returns detailed information about the status of a node. What is the purpose of this feature? Customers have told us that they need to be able to get ...

Validate features of PowerShell DSC

As many readers of the PowerShell blog already know, the next version of PowerShell is currently in preview. It is available in the Windows Management Framework 5 Preview. You can install this package on Windows 7, Server 2008 R2, or later. Your feedback is important to us! After software ships, it is harder to introduce changes. There is a ...

Use DSC to manage WMI namespace security

Almost 6 years ago, I wrote some PowerShell scripts in a multi-part series explaining WMI namespace security and also how to manage them using PowerShell. If you're not familiar with WMI namespace security, I recommend reading the blog posts above or even as a refresher. I received some feedback fairly recently about some issues and this ...

DSC Resource Kit flourishes as open source

We are excited to announce the recent updates which were made to DSC Resource Kit since open sourcing it on GitHub! We were working hard on improving coverage and robustness of DSC as well as saw incredible engagement from the community in the recent months. That effort resulted in adding 32 new DSC resources across 8 modules and fixing bugs ...

Want to write a DSC resource where only a single instance can be configured?

I've heard from a few DSC resource authors that they need a method to implement a resource that has a single instance; a singleton. The problem they encountered is a DSC resource must define a Key property but singleton resources generally should not have a key because there is only one instance that can be updated. The problem can been...

Looking Forward: Microsoft Support for Secure Shell (SSH)

[UPDATE]: Read more about our detailed plans, roadmap, and where you can play with the in-progress code here. As Microsoft has shifted towards a more customer-oriented culture, Microsoft engineers are using social networks, tech communities and direct customer feedback as an integral part on how we make decisions about future investments. A...

PowerShell DSC for Linux is now available!

We are pleased to announce that PowerShell Desired State Configuration for Linux (version 1) is available for download. You can now use the powerful Desired State Configuration (DSC) platform to manage the configuration ofboth Windows and Linux workloads with a familiar PowerShell interface. Bringing DSC to Linux is another step in Microsoft&...

Desired State Configuration Resources for PackageManagement Providers

Introduction You may have heard of, or even already used PackageManagement (aka OneGet). Recently, I was reading the OneGet blog and OneGet in GitHub, and decided to give it a try by installing the Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0 Preview April 2015. I found that PackageManagement provides a consistent user experience by exposing the ...

Community Feedback and Microsoft Connect

Community feedback is an integral part of any software development cycle. That's why we continue to release new preview versions of Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.0: so that we can hear about and fix real-world problems before they ship with the next version of Windows. Historically, our guidance for filing bugs and feature requests...

ISE Module Browser – A new way to manage your PowerShell modules

[UPDATED] A newer, working version of the ISE Module Browser is now available on the PowerShell Gallery: https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/ISEModuleBrowserAddon/   High quality reusable modules, like LEGO pieces, enable IT Pros to build automation solutions in minutes! Where can I find those high quality reusable modules? ...