14 DAY TRIAL // The truth is that the team over at Microsoft that is involved into the production and development of PowerShell was fairly optimistic when it came to the future success of the tools. However, they were not expecting the level of adoption equivalent to 1 million downloads in the first half year of availability. "Microsoft Windows PowerShell is a new command-line shell and scripting language designed for system administration and automation. Built on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications," informed Microsoft on the tool's description.
The incredible rate of adoption that PowerShell is enjoying is a clear indication of the tool's reliability and power, but also with the quality of the product. Jeffrey Snover, Windows Management Partner Architect revealed that some customers began introducing PowerShell into their production environments since the tool was still in beta.
"Shortly before we released, Scott Ottaway (our marketing guy) expressed an opinion that we have a million downloads in our first year. I thought he was delusional or just plain ignorant about how long it takes for technologies like this to be adopted. Imagine how much crow I'm eating now that we are about to have our millionth download. That's right - PowerShell has had almost a MILLION DOWNLOADS IN ITS FIRST 6 MONTHS. People just can't get their heads around this - we keep double checking the numbers - but it's true. Note that this does NOT include the Windows Server 2008 (Server "Longhorn" Beta 3) usage," Snover stated.
PowerShell is supported on Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of the operating systems and has been available for download since January 30, 2007. PowerShall brings to the table 129 command-line tools called cmdlets designed to cover a wide range of system administration tasks.