Finally! The Windows Management Framework version 5.0 RTM is available for download for all down level Operating systems: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Servers 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Servers 2012 R2.
Download link here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50395
You’ll notice that there are no download files for Windows 7 SP1 x64 and Windows 8.1 x64. In order the install either of these you can use the following:
1. For Windows 7 SP1 x64 – Download and install: W2K8R2-KB3094176-x64.msu
2. For Windows 8.1 x64 – Download and install: W2K12-KB3094175-x64.msu
Check out the list of new and updated features: (extracted from the “Detail” section)
- Develop with classes in Windows PowerShell
- Just Enough Administration (JEA)
- Extract and parse structured object out of string content
- More control in Windows PowerShell Remote Debugging
- PowerShell Information Stream
- New and updated cmdlets based on community feedback
- Generate Windows PowerShell cmdlets based on an OData endpoint with ODataUtils
- Manage .ZIP archives through new cmdlets
- Interact with symbolic links using improved Item cmdlets
- DSC authoring improvements in Windows PowerShell ISE
- 32-bit support for the configuration keyword in DSC
- Audit Windows PowerShell usage by transcription and logging
- Configure DSC’s Local Configuration Manager with the meta-configuration attribute
- Configure piece by piece with partial configurations in DSC
- Manage with cross-computer dependencies in DSC
- More control over configurations in DSC
- Find more detail about configuration status in DSC
- Support for -? during DSC configuration compilation
- Support for DSC RunAsCredential
- Rich information for DSC LCM State
- Side-by-Side installation of DSC Resources and PowerShell Modules
- PSDesiredStateConfiguration Module version updated to 1.1
- Report configuration status from DSC to a central location
- Discover and install software with PackageManagement
- Discover PowerShell Modules, PowerShell Scripts and DSC resources with PowerShellGet
- Network Switch management with Windows PowerShell
- Software Inventory Logging (SIL)
Go ahead, download, and start using PowerShell version 5.0.
SAPIEN PowerShell Studio 2015 is PowerShell v5.0 ready: https://www.sapien.com/software/powershell_studio