To close out the module,
let me highlight some key points about the PowerShell of the past and
PowerShell of today, that is Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7. Now
as I told you, PowerShell 7 is open source.
You can see everything in the PowerShell repository up on GitHub. Windows
PowerShell is still closed and will probably always be that way,
As you can tell by the name, Windows PowerShell only works on Windows.
PowerShell 7 is cross platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, and much more.
Yes, there are some operating system‑specific differences,
but fundamentally it's the same PowerShell on all platforms. Windows
PowerShell ships with every Windows system, it's just there by
default. PowerShell 7 will need to be installed,
but as you'll see, this is a pretty easy task.
Now I'd like to think that some future versions of Windows was
ship with PowerShell, something by default,
but we'll have to wait and see what happens with that.
Windows PowerShell 5.1 is finished.
What you see is what you get.
Microsoft is no longer developing or even really maintaining Windows PowerShell,
except for anything security related.
I expect you'll find Windows PowerShell on Windows 10 for quite a while,
but it won't change. What you see, what you have now, that's
going to be Windows PowerShell. On the other side of the coin,
PowerShell 7 is under active development.
This is where Microsoft is spending all of their time and money.
Now, what about the PowerShell ISE? That is still around on Windows platforms,
but that, too, is no longer being updated or developed.
If you need an editor for creating scripts,
the recommendation is to use the free Visual Studio
Code application from Microsoft.
The PowerShell ISE will never be able to use PowerShell 7.
You'll need to use VS Code.
You'll find a huge adoption of VS Code in the PowerShell community.
There are other editors out there,
some free, some commercial, so you can find something
that works for you and your budget.
But I do want you to know that the ISE should be considered
deprecated and you'll need to find something that works
with PowerShell 7. And finally,
Windows PowerShell runs in the powershell.exe process and
PowerShell 7 uses pwsh.exe. This is what allows you to run
the two versions side by side.
I know there's a lot to take in in this lesson,
but I think it helps to understand the whys and hows of
PowerShell. PowerShell is one of the most important management
tools that you can learn as an IT pro.
I can't tell you how many people have told me that
they wish they had learned it sooner.
Once you learn the fundamentals, you can apply it everywhere.
Think of my modern management paradigm.
The future of PowerShell is PowerShell 7.
Even if your current job isn't involved with cross‑platform needs,
your next job might be,
and PowerShell 7 has plenty of improvements alone that
warrant moving to it. In the worst case,
if PowerShell 7 can't do something,
you can always jump back into Windows PowerShell to get the job done.
So for now,
after just taking a quick walk around the block to stretch your legs, think
about everything that I've talked about in this module,
and when you come back, we'll look at getting PowerShell 7 installed on your desktop.