PowerShell 7.0 is now generally available

PowerShell 7.0, the next major release of PowerShell, is now available. This latest release makes PowerShell a truly cross-platform automation tool and configuration framework. With PowerShell 7, in addition to the new cmdlets/APIs and bug fixes, a number of other new features are now available, including:

• Pipeline parallelization with ForEach-Object -Parallel.
• New operators
  • Ternary operator—a ? b : c.
  • Pipeline chain operators—|| and &&.
  • Null conditional operators—?? and ??=.
• A simplified and dynamic error view and Get-Error cmdlet for easier investigation of errors.
• A compatibility layer that enables users to import modules in an implicit Windows PowerShell session.
• Automatic new version notifications.
• The ability to invoke DSC resources directly from PowerShell 7 (experimental).

For a more complete list of features and fixes, read the PowerShell 7.0 release notes.

The shift from PowerShell Core 6.x to 7.0 also marks the move from .NET Core 2.x to 3.1. .NET Core 3.1 brings back a host of .NET Framework APIs (especially on Windows), enabling significantly more backwards compatibility with existing Windows PowerShell modules. This includes many modules on Windows that require GUI functionality like Out-GridView and Show-Command, as well as many role-management modules that are part of Windows.

For more information, read the module compatibility table that shows how to get the latest, up-to-date modules that work with PowerShell 7.

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