Windows Management Framework 5.0 Preview May 2014 is now available

We’re excited to announce Windows Management Framework 5.0 Preview May 2014, a new package publicizing new and exciting management technologies, is now available for download on Download Center!

This version of the preview includes everything in the Windows Management Framework 5.0 Preview that was released in April of 2014 and a new module called PowerShellGet.

This new package installs exclusively on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.  If WMF 5.0 Preview (April 2014) is already installed on the machine, WMF 5.0 Preview (April 2014) must be uninstalled in order to install WMF 5.0 Preview May 2014.

PowerShellGet

PowerShellGet is a new way to discover, install, and update PowerShell Modules.  New in WMF 5.0 Preview May 2014, PowerShellGet contains a set of cmdlets that enable users to interact with an online module gallery.

Instead of having to search through CodePlex, GitHub, various blogs, and TechNet Script Center for all the PowerShell Modules you want, you can use Find-Module to search through an online Gallery:

PS C:\windows\system32> Find-Module

Version         Name                                     DateUpdated               Description

——-         —-                                     ———–               ———–

1.1.0.0         AutoVars                                 5/12/2014 2:37:19 PM      Allows f…

6.0             ConversionModule                         5/6/2014 2:34:14 PM       a module…

1.0             EWS                                      5/11/2014 11:20:17 AM     Module t…

1.0             GenericMethods                           5/8/2014 10:53:45 AM      The Invo…

1.2.0.0         HardwareManagement                       5/13/2014 1:28:11 PM      Out-of-b…

1.1             IEFavorites                              5/13/2014 7:30:05 PM      Used to …

1.0             InlineMailAttachments                    5/8/2014 10:33:11 AM      This mod…

0.1.0.0         ISEGit                                   5/11/2014 11:48:48 AM     Module t…

3.0             LocalUserManagement                      5/12/2014 2:17:19 PM      a module…

1.0.0.5         LockObject                               5/13/2014 5:41:05 PM      Lock-Obj…

1.0.0.0         MyDefaults                               5/7/2014 12:47:21 PM      Sets and…

1.4             myModule                                 5/8/2014 10:18:33 AM      My Power…

1.0             PoshInternals                            5/7/2014 5:56:43 AM       Collecti…

2.2.1           PoshWSUS                                 5/6/2014 7:48:49 PM       PowerShe…

1.2             PowerShellCookbook                       5/14/2014 11:02:23 AM     Sample s…

Installing a module from the Gallery is a simple one liner.  You won’t need to understand (or explain) $env:PSModulePath to your coworkers again:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Install-Module PowerShellCookbook -Scope CurrentUser -Verbose

VERBOSE: The specified module will be installed in ‘C:\Users\joslack\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules’.

VERBOSE: GET https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=397631&clcid=0x409 with 0-byte payload

VERBOSE: received 160-byte response of content type text/html; charset=utf-8

VERBOSE: Found module ‘PowerShellCookbook’ with version ‘1.2’.

VERBOSE: Loading module from path ‘C:\Users\joslack\AppData\Local\Temp\411069568\PowerShellCookbook\PowerShellCookbook.psm1’.

VERBOSE: Performing the operation “Install-Module” on target “Version ‘1.2’ of module ‘PowerShellCookbook'”.

VERBOSE: Module ‘PowerShellCookbook’ was installed successfully.

Updating your modules is even easier – just run the Update-Module command.  Checking for updates through your web browser will be a thing of the past.  You can check which modules will be updated with the -Whatif parameter:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Update-Module -WhatIf

What if: Performing the operation “Update-Module” on target “Version ‘1.0.0.6’ of module ‘PSReadLine’, updating to version ‘1.0.0.8’”.

What if: Performing the operation “Update-Module” on target “Version ‘1.0’ of module ‘xDatabase’, updating to version ‘1.1’”.

What if: Performing the operation “Update-Module” on target “Version ‘0.2.7’ of module ‘xJea’, updating to version ‘0.2.16’”.

To sum up, you can:

·         Discover modules from the gallery using the Find-Module command

·         Install module from the gallery using the Install-Module command

·         Update installed modules by using the Update-Module command 

For more details, look through the PowerShellGet help:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Update-Help -Module PowerShellGet

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Get-Help Update-Module

NAME

    Update-Module

SYNOPSIS

    Downloads and installs the newest version of specified modules from an online gallery to the local computer.

SYNTAX

    Update-Module [[-Name] <String[]>] [-Confirm] [-Force] [-RequiredVersion <Version>] [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [-WhatIf] [<CommonParameters>]

Other Improvements

For additional information about the NetworkSwitch and OneGet cmdlets introduced in the April Preview, we recommend checking Jeffrey Snover’s blog post about the WMF 5.0 Preview released in April.

We’re excited to provide this new iteration of WMF to you all, and we’re happy to hear any and all feedback that you may have.

As usual, our main avenue of feedback is Connect: https://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/Feedback

On behalf of everyone contributing to WMF, we hope you enjoy this Preview release.

John Lisco

PowerShell Program Manager