PowerShell 7.1.0 RC 2 is available for download

PowerShell 7.1, the upcoming version of the cross-platform scripting solution available on Windows, MacOS, and Linux, is getting closer to its release. Today, its Release Candidate 2 has become available for download.

The preview release of PowerShell 7.1 includes .NET 5 preview 1. Starting with PowerShell 7.0, devs have shifted to align with .NET’s release and support life-cycle more closely. PowerShell 7.1 is expected to become available within a week or two of .NET 5’s release date of winter 2020 and align with their annual release cadence going forward.

Starting with Preview 6, PowerShell 7.1 Preview is available in Microsoft Store.

What's new in PowerShell 7.1 RC 2

Engine Updates and Fixes

• Rename Get-Subsystem to Get-PSSubsystem and fix two related minor issues (#13765)
• Add missing PSToken token table entries to fix the PSParser API (#13779)
• Add additional PowerShell modules to the tracked modules list (#12183)
• Fix blocking wait when starting file associated with a Windows application (#13750)
• Revert PSNativePSPathResolution to being an experimental feature (#13734)

General Cmdlet Updates and Fixes

• Emit warning if ConvertTo-Json exceeds -Depth value (#13692)

Build and Packaging Improvements

• Change Linux package script call to publish to the production repository in release builds (#13714)
• Update PSReadLine version to 2.1.0-rc1 (#13777)
• Move PowerShell build to dotnet 5.0-RC.2 (#13780)
• Bump Microsoft.PowerShell.Native to 7.1.0-rc.2 (#13794)

What to expect in PowerShell 7.1

• PowerShellGet 3.0
• Secret Management Module, an extensible abstraction layer in PowerShell for interacting with Secrets and Secrets Vaults, will get Linux support.
• PSScriptAnalyzer 2.0 for better user experience with VSCode-PowerShell and PSEditorServices.
• Improvements made to PowerShell Jupyter Kernel
• Improvements made to platyPS vNext, a PowerShell module that devs currently use to convert PowerShell documentation from markdown to updatable-help.

There are also a number of areas where it is possible to make more improvements and changes, including Installation and Updating, Shell Improvements, Interactive User Experience.

Finally, PowerShell may get a minimal setup, that only includes the parts of PowerShell needed for your scripts. Not only would it take less disk space, but more importantly, a minimal set of code means less patching and security attack surface.

You can download it here:

Download PowerShell 7.1 Preview