concept PowerShell v2 in category powershell

This is an excerpt from Manning's book PowerShell in Practice. Login to get full access to this book.

Whenever a new version of a product appears, this is always the killer question. For PowerShell v2, there are a number of scenarios where the answer is straightforward, as well as a few murky areas. Pretty standard for IT, really!

If Windows Server 2008 R2 is being used for the OS, then PowerShell v2 is installed by default (with the usual caveat about Server Core being an option rather than part of the default installation). If the application will install on R2, then it should be okay using PowerShell v2. For instance, SQL Server 2008 will happily install on R2 with PowerShell v2 (it does moan at the beginning that you need to apply SP1 post installation). Exchange 2007 won’t install on Windows Server 2008 R2 until SP3 is available later in 2010. Exchange 2010 will only install on Windows Server 2008 R2 and use PowerShell v2.

For servers running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2003 that have had PowerShell v1 installed, the upgrade scenario is dependent on the application. PowerShell v2 will install over the top of v1 unless you have installed a Windows Service Pack on top of v1. In that case it will be necessary to uninstall the Service Pack, uninstall PowerShell v1 and reinstall the Service pack before installing PowerShell v2. If the application depends on PowerShell, it may accept the upgrade or it may not. Check with the vendors and test if possible. If in doubt, don’t upgrade.

Figure 4.3. PowerShell ISE from PowerShell v2

Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 install PowerShell v2 by default. A huge amount of extra PowerShell functionality is available between v2 and Windows 2008 R2. We’ve seen a lot of the PowerShell v2 functionality in various chapters of the book. In this chapter, we’ll briefly peek at Windows 2008 R2 and some of the good PowerShell things that it brings to us.

Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 have PowerShell v2 installed and enabled by default. Server Core has PowerShell v2 as an optional feature. PowerShell ISE is installed by default on Windows 7, but is an optional feature on the server.