General Information
What is PowerShell?
PowerShell is Microsoft's Command Line Interface for Windows systems, it provides access to:
Existing Windows Command Line tools.
PowerShell Cmdlets (PowerShell own Commands)
PowerShell Functions
Access to the .Net Framework API
Access to WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation
Access to Windows COM (Component Object Model)
Access to function in Windows DLL (Dynamic Linked Libraries)
I would like to note that there is now PowerShell available for unix-based operating systems.
Is it similar to shell on unix?
There are some key differences between unix-based systems and Windows that are important for scripting and automation:
Unix/Linux
Windows
Possible resource
File System
Everything is mounted under the "/" and it has quite strict structure
usage of drives for mountpoints
Configuration
File based (everything is a file)
mix of files and Windows Registry
Application Distribution
One central package manager (yum, apt, pacman, etc.)
No centralized option (there is microsoft store for some applications though).
Important to note here, that while one can install anything anywhere on windows, installators are using registry to have information about locations stored in one place.
Shell
string and binary based
object and binary based
PowerShell Versions and Support Matrix
PowerShell Version
Release Date
Default Windows Versions
Available Windows Versions
PowerShell 1.0
November 2006
Windows Server 2008 (*)
PowerShell 2.0
October 2009
Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 R2 (**)
PowerShell 3.0
September 2012
Windows 8 Windows Server 2012
PowerShell 4.0
October 2013
Windows 8.1 Windows Server 2012 R2
PowerShell 5.0
February 2016
Windows 10
PowerShell 5.1
January 2017
Windows 10 Anniversary Update Windows Server 2016
* Has to be installed through Server manager ** Also integrated in all later Windows versions
PowerShell Core
PowerShell Core is the successor of Windows PowerShell 5.1 and runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. The table below lists all supported operating systems and the FAQ at the end of this article answers important questions about the difference between Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core.
OS
Windows PowerShell 5.1
PowerShell Core 6.0
Windows
Windows 7 SP1Windows 8.1Windows 10Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1+Windows Server 2012Windows Server 2012 R2Windows Server 2016
Windows 7 SP1Windows 8.1Windows 10 1607+Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1+Windows Server 2012Windows Server 2012 R2Windows Server 2016
macOS
-
10.12+
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
-
7
CentOS
-
7
Oracle Linux
-
7
Fedora
-
25, 26
Debian
-
8.7+, 9
Ubuntu
-
14.04, 16.04, 17.04 18, 17
openSUSE
-
42.2+
Arch Linux
-
N/A
Kali
-
N/A
Raspbian
-
N/A
PowerShell Architecture
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