Microsoft has released the latest version of its automation tool, now going by as PowerShell 7. It is now generally available for various versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The successor to PowerShell Core 6 is now referred to simply as PowerShell 7. And this is because the software titan believes that it has achieved as much backwards compatibility with Windows PowerShell as possible.
Hence, this one, true PowerShell.
As announced, there are a number of neat changes in this version of the command-line based configuration tool. Starting with the underlying technology, which Redmond has rather neatly upgraded from .NET Core 2.x to .NET Core 3.1.
The new platform was made generally available in December, and it’s good to see it picking up traction.
As a matter of pure fact, this is actually what has enabled greater backwards compatibility with Windows PowerShell modules. All that said, we also conveniently have a new switch that forces modules to run on the classic Windows PowerShell, if needed.
Redmond provides a detailed look at all that is new here, but you can expect new operators, a simplified and dynamic error view, as well as a compatibility layer that enables users to import modules.
We also have automatic new version notifications, along with the experimental ability to invoke DSC resources directly from PowerShell 7.
In addition to these, there are also new cmdlets, APIs, and fixes in this release.
Ready to upgrade?
You can download PowerShell 7 below. It works on 64-bit flavors of Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, macOS, and multiple Linux distributions. Curiously, Windows on ARM devices are not yet supported, but perhaps that is something that is coming later down the road.
Download: PowerShell 7
