The second Community Technology Preview of Windows PowerShell V2 is now available for download. Designed as the successor of Windows PowerShell 1.0, Windows PowerShell V2 CTP2 also marks a consistent evolution in comparison with the initial Community Technology Preview release. As such, it delivers new features, along with extended usability. In this manner, Microsoft offers a more mature command line shell and scripting language that enables an increased level of control over Windows environments, leading to a jump in productivity. The CTP will integrate seamlessly with Windows Server 2003 SP2; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista SP1; Windows XP SP2.

"This release adds a plethora of new features. PowerShell remoting now allows a one-to-one interactive experience. Thought about partitioning and organizing PowerShell scripts? Use modules to create self-contained and reusable units. This release introduces transactions support in PowerShell engine and APIs along with an update to the Registry provider to support them. We introduced eventing support in Powershell engine for listening, forwarding and acting on management and system events. Support for multiple parameter sets in script cmdlets bring them to par with C# cmdlets," said Hemant Mahawar, Program Manager Windows PowerShell.

But at the same time, Microsoft informed that Windows PowerShell V2 CTP2 is not meant for integration into productivity environments. The Community Technology Preview label means that Windows PowerShell V2 is not even in Beta stage, but just a pre-release build. V2 CTP2 does provide support for 1.0 cmdlets and scripts, but this release of PowerShell has not been tested to the same extent of the final version and is still far from reaching the finish line.

"For the adventurous folks.... application developers can host PowerShell in IIS to support multiple remote PowerShell sessions in a single process. These are just a few of the new features we have packaged in this CTP2 release. Additionally this CTP2 includes some simple updates... like new parameters to several existing cmdlets," Mahawar added.

Windows PowerShell V2 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) is available for download here.