14 DAY TRIAL // Provided that the Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) is installed on a Windows 7 computer, customers will be able to leverage a number of 456 core cmdlets for Windows PowerShell 2.0. Microsoft has explained that this number does not take into consideration the commands included in the latest iteration of the Windows client. 456 cmdlets represent quite an increase from the commands that were available to IT administrators in the previous version of the scripting language, which featured a bare minimum of 129 cmdlets. “The number of cmdlets in Windows PowerShell 2.0 has nearly doubled over the number that shipped with the original product,” revealed Microsoft’s Ed Wilson and Craig Liebendorfer.
“These are core cmdlets and do not take into account the number of cmdlets that are included with Windows 7.0. Many of these cmdlets are for use with remoting, and the underlying WSMan technology. On a Windows 7 computer with Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) installed, there are 456 cmdlets. On a Windows 7 computer with all modules loaded, but without RSAT installed, there are 251 cmdlets. On a Windows 7 computer without the modules loaded there are 236 cmdlets. On a computer with Windows PowerShell 1.0 installed and with no snap-ins installed, there are 129 cmdlets,” Wilson added.
There are of course a number of commands that have been added to the latest version of PowerShell and which weren’t available in version 1.0. According to Microsoft, there are 24 new cmdlets in PowerShell 2.0: Get-PSBreakpoint, Get-PSCallStack, Remove-PSJob, New-PSBreakpoint, ConvertFrom-StringData, Start-PSJob, Disable-PSBreakpoint, Import-LocalizedData, Stop-PSJob, Enable-PSBreakpoint, Get-Runspace, Wait-PSJob, Remove-PSBreakpoint, New-Runspace, Invoke-WMIMethod, Step-Into, Remove-Runspace, Remove-WMIObject, Step-Out, Get-PsJob, Set-WMIInstance, Step-Over, Receive-PSJob, Out-GridView.
IT admins already working with Windows 7 and PowerShell 2.0 can easily see all the default cmdlets installed on their computer. The commands will be displayed with the following command: “Get-Command –commandtype cmdlet.”
“A cmdlet is a lightweight command that is used in the Windows PowerShell environment. The Windows PowerShell runtime invokes these cmdlets within the context of automation scripts that are provided at the command line. The Windows PowerShell runtime also invokes them programmatically through Windows PowerShell APIs,” Microsoft revealed.