Aside from announcing the release dates for Longhorn Server, Systems Center Operations Manager 2007 (MOM v3) and SMS 2003 R2, Bob Muglia presented yesterday during the Microsoft Management Summit 2006, the first RC (Release Candidate) of the new command line shell and scripting language, also known as Monad.

At the same time, Muglia also announced the shell's official name, which will be known from now on as Windows PowerShell. The new shell will allow administrators to automate and control the tasks which run on Windows desktops and servers.

PowerShell requires .NET Framework 2.0 is available in three editions - x86, x64 and Itanium, and can be used with Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server "Longhorn".

It's interesting to notice that the Monad technology is the foundation of Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Operations Manager version 3 and that it will allow administrators to execute all the tasks from the command line, tasks which normally would require the GUI.

BetaNews writes that the PowerShell was a fairly complex endeavor for Microsoft, which has previously focused its attention on the graphical interface while rival server software remains primarily command line based. The idea was to build a Unix-like shell for administrators that offers advanced scripting capabilities while remaining easy to program.

Windows PowerShell RC1 has been tested by Softpedia as being 100% CLEAN and is available for download here.