I gave a presentation at the upstate New York PowerShell user group last night about the new stuff in PowerShell 2 — giving it really made me think about how I’m just so used to PowerShell 2 that I’ve forgotten about how much of it is new in this version — and how cool each of these new things are. In fact, in my list of 7 areas that I talked about, I bet we could find a PowerShell MVP for at least each of the top 6 that would be willing to argue for that one being the most important new feature in PowerShell 2

Having said that, below is the text from my slides … my personal “highlights” of what’s new in PowerShell 2.

What’s New In PowerShell 2?

Advanced Functions

Modules

Help

Remoting

Eventing

Integrated Script Editor (debugging)

Transaction support

… and more

Advanced Functions

• Parameter parsing & binding

  • Mandatory
  • Position
  • ValueFromPipeline
  • ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName
  • ValueFromRemainingArguments

• Parameter validation

  • IsNull
  • IsNotNull
  • Set
  • Range
  • Count
  • RegEx Pattern
  • Script

• Parameter Sets

• CmdletBinding Support

  • SupportsShouldProcess
  • ConfirmImpact
  • DefaultParameterSetName

• Dynamic parameters

Modules

• XCopy deploy (PSModulePath)

• Module manifests use .psd1 extension

• Script Modules use .psm1 extension

  • Organization

  • Private variables and functions

• Import modules easily, (and remove)

• Related Cmdlets:

  • Get-Module
  • New-Module
  • Import-Module
  • Remove-Module
  • Export-ModuleMember

Help for Functions and Scripts

• XML-based help   (just like cmdlets)

• Comment-based help

• Online help

• Provider-based help additions

• Get-Help now searches!

  • e.g.: man hashtable

Comment-Based Help Example

<#
.SYNOPSIS
A short description of the function.

.DESCRIPTION
A longer description of the function.

.PARAMETER <parametername>
The documentation for that specific parameter

.EXAMPLE
C:\PS> some example code

.LINK
Get-AnotherFunction

.LINK
http://yourwebsite.com/help/documentation
#>

Comment-Based Help Keywords

• Synopsis
• Description
• Parameter
• Example
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Notes
• Component
• Role
• Functionality
• ForwardHelpTargetName
• ForwardHelpCategory
• RemoteHelpRunspace
• Link
• ExternalHelp

Remoting

• Fan-in and Fan-out remoting

• Requires PowerShell 2.0 on both ends

• Receive serialized property bags, not live objects

• WinRM = WS-Management = SOAP spec

• Enable-PSRemoting requires elevation

• Related Cmdlets:

  • New-PsSession

  • Get-PsSession

  • Remove-PsSession

  • Export-PsSession

  • Import-PsSession

  • Enter-PsSession

  • Exit-PsSession

  • Invoke-Command

Background Jobs

• Execute work asynchronously

• Separate runspace

• Related Cmdlets:

  • Start-Job
  • Stop-Job
  • Get-Job
  • Receive-Job
  • Wait-Job
  • Remove-Job
  • Invoke-Command

Eventing

Finally provides support for asynchronous Events, for GUIs, timers, WMI, and remoting

• Events can be forwarded from remote sessions

• Related Cmdlets:

  • Register-EngineEvent
  • Register-ObjectEvent
  • Register-WmiEvent
  • RegisterUnregister-Event
  • Get-EventSubscribers
  • New-Event
  • Get-Event
  • Wait-Event
  • Remove-Event

Integrated Script Editor – ISE

• Graphical host for PowerShell engine

• Tabbed script editor

• Supports Unicode!

• Supports script debugging (about_debuggers)

  • Graphical debugging like an IDE

  • Set breakpoints, stop conditions, etc

• Related Cmdlets:

  • Set-PSDebug
  • Set-StrictMode
  • Get-PSCallStack
  • Get-PSBreakpoint
  • Set-PSBreakpoint
  • Remove-PSBreakpoint
  • Enable-PSBreakpoint
  • Disable-PSBreakpoint

Transaction Support

• Commit/rollback semantics

• Rollback can be automatic (if error occurs)

• Registry provider is only supporter in the box

• Related Cmdlets:

  • Start-Transaction
  • Complete-Transaction
  • Undo-Transaction
  • Get-Transaction
  • Use-Transaction

107 New Cmdlets

• Add-Computer
• Add-Type
• Checkpoint-Computer
• Clear-EventLog
• Clear-History
• Complete-Transaction
• Connect-WSMan
• ConvertFrom-Csv
• ConvertFrom-StringData
• ConvertTo-Csv
• ConvertTo-Xml
• Debug-Process
• Disable-ComputerRestore
• Disable-PSBreakpoint
• Disable-PSSessionConfiguration
• Disable-WSManCredSSP
• Disconnect-WSMan
• Enable-ComputerRestore
• Enable-PSBreakpoint
• Enable-PSRemoting
• Enable-PSSessionConfiguration
• Enable-WSManCredSSP
• Enter-PSSession
• Exit-PSSession
• Export-Counter
• Export-FormatData
• Export-ModuleMember
• Export-PSSession
• Get-ComputerRestorePoint
• Get-Counter
• Get-Event
• Get-EventSubscriber
• Get-FormatData
• Get-HotFix
• Get-Job
• Get-Module
• Get-PSBreakpoint
• Get-PSCallStack
• Get-PSSession
• Get-PSSessionConfiguration
• Get-Random
• Get-Transaction
• Get-WinEvent
• Get-WSManCredSSP
• Get-WSManInstance
• Import-Counter
• Import-LocalizedData
• Import-Module
• Import-PSSession
• Invoke-Command
• Invoke-WmiMethod
• Invoke-WSManAction
• Limit-EventLog
• New-Event
• New-EventLog
• New-Module
• New-ModuleManifest
• New-PSSession
• New-PSSessionOption
• New-WebServiceProxy
• New-WSManInstance
• New-WSManSessionOption
• Out-GridView
• Receive-Job
• Register-EngineEvent
• Register-ObjectEvent
• Register-PSSessionConfiguration
• Register-WmiEvent
• Remove-Computer
• Remove-Event
• Remove-EventLog
• Remove-Job
• Remove-Module
• Remove-PSBreakpoint
• Remove-PSSession
• Remove-WmiObject
• Remove-WSManInstance
• Reset-ComputerMachinePassword
• Restart-Computer
• Restore-Computer
• Select-Xml
• Send-MailMessage
• Set-PSBreakpoint
• Set-PSSessionConfiguration
• Set-StrictMode
• Set-WmiInstance
• Set-WSManInstance
• Set-WSManQuickConfig
• Show-EventLog
• Start-Job
• Start-Process
• Start-Transaction
• Stop-Computer
• Stop-Job
• Test-ComputerSecureChannel
• Test-Connection
• Test-ModuleManifest
• Test-WSMan
• Undo-Transaction
• Unregister-Event
• Unregister-PSSessionConfiguration
• Update-List
• Use-Transaction
• Wait-Event
• Wait-Job
• Wait-Process
• Write-EventLog

Miscellaneous

• Try { } Catch{ } Finally { }

• Add-Type cmdlet – compiles .NET code

• Splatting: @

• Steppable pipelines for wrapping cmdlets

• -Split and –Join

• Script Internationalization

• Lots of cmdlet improvements

• Select-String … -NotMatch -AllMatches -Context 3

Similar Posts:

• RFC: Information in PoshCode Module Manifests
• PowerShell Scripting Best Practices: Prefix A
• Working with multiple versions of PowerShell Modules
• PowerShell 3 – Finally on the DLR!
• What Scope Am I In?