Microsoft has released PowerShell 7 Preview 3, delivering a number of new features, but some changes to its telemetry. Though all preview features are now available by default, telemetry is also turned on out of the box.
Essentially, the company is trying to work out which features it should keep and which it should axe to make it more lightweight. Though users can disable telemetry, the hope is that they won’t, providing stats on which additions are used most.
It’s also collecting more data, counting PowerShell starts by type, unique PowerShell usage, and use of execution types. The most important addition is, of course, the features users have enabled.
PowerShell 7 Preview 3 Changelog
Microsoft will share some of this anonymized PowerShell data via its PowerBI page, including the most popular OSes. The solution is becoming increasingly popular on Linux, growing it significantly.
That said, the new features in Preview 3 include:
- “Ability to run scriptblocks in parallel using the ForEach-Object –Parallel cmdlet.
- A single apartment thread for Windows users by default.
- Argument names displayed with COM API calls.
- Null strings for database types become comparable as $null or [dnull].
- Read-Host prompt no longer encumbered by certain characters in scripts.
- A negative –Split operator capability for making right-to-left substrings.
- Showing the bytes of the target executable application file with the Get-ChildItemcmdlet.”
PowerShell is expected to launch before the end of the year after some time in preview. Among other things, it’s based on .NET Core 3.0, which lets admins use one version cross Windows, Linux, and macOS. It will also feature better performance and security.
