Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

DudeBoyz reviewed v2.0 Community Technology Preview 3 on Jan 26, 2009

I wish this would be extended to work outside of the core Windows environment as well - executed prior to the loading of Windows so you were able to apply these functions to a static OS deployment. Basically, make it a bootable environment (command line or character based GUI not requiring dedicated graphics drivers) so you can work on a Windows installation that may be damaged or more efficiently handled without concern for open processes / files. Not remove any functionality but simply enhance the concept and broaden its capabilities.

That said, what it does do it does pretty well, though it may be a daunting ramp-up for some. But once you invest the time and energy to learn how to take advantage of the commands, syntax, etc. you can do some pretty cool batch maintenance procedures and the like.

Certainly a worthy effort that I hope continues to improve.

bradingram reviewed v2.0 CTP on Nov 6, 2007

Fortunately - i have installed this after reinstaling windows (xp) , so did not have any issues with removing v1 , which seems to have happened based on an earlier post .

works fine - love the graphical option

my only gripe - is that if you move/rename start menu group - when you run the app - it wants to access the original .msi and reinstall the original start menu group again !!

i think this is something that ms loves to do , as if i remember correctly Messenger/live/v8 does too.... but we wont get into the politics

The MAZZTer reviewed v2.0 CTP on Nov 6, 2007

If you cannot remove Windows PowerShell v1.0 through the Add/Remove Software Control Panel, read this:

http://blogs.msdn.com/po...indows-server-2003.aspx

Note that you will need some version of Visual Studio 2005 (use the shortcut for the Visual Studio 2005 command prompt) to uninstall the .NET assemblies. If gacutil /u does not work you will need to remove ALL values called "PowerShell Setup" from the registry under HKLM\Software/Microosft/Fusion/References. Then gacutil /u will function.

zridling reviewed v1.0 on May 17, 2007

This links to Windows 2003 Server.

andrewbmoore reviewed v1.0 on May 3, 2007

Very useful and there is a growing community of people writing plugins and scripts for it. And to those who rate this poor simply because they hate Microsoft (yet haven't even used the product), it's people like you who add "ratings pollution" to such a great site like FileForum. Make this site better by adding useful comments and save the trolling for message boards, please.

BoNeLeSS reviewed v1.0 on Nov 15, 2006

Much better than cmd.exe. More friendly than WSH Not as powerful as bash.

[deXter] reviewed v1.0 on Nov 15, 2006

Runs too slow. Features can never be a tradeoff for performance, and one of the main features one expects from a command line utility is speed.

This program seems to be in the same league as the new "Vista" programs that don't run too well on low - mid range systems.

Alex Stevens reviewed v1.0 on Nov 15, 2006

Very nice.

jujuthing reviewed v1.0 RC2 on Sep 27, 2006

monad was nice. A useful enhancement to the otherwise weak dos shell. unfortunaly i can't install this. perhaps it has something to do with the fact that i can't install any windows updates anymore (wga? my windows copy is legel). J
Just another item to add to the long list of windows anoyances...

The MAZZTer reviewed v1.0 RC2 on Sep 26, 2006

Installer is broken. It appears to be an upgrade patch for RC1, however it never detects an RC1 installation and refuses to install.

[Edit: ajsaragosa1979's link is correct. Be sure to uninstall any previous versions of PowerShell... this is not a patch but a full install.]

[Edit 2:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0>powershell.exe
Internal Windows PowerShell error. Loading managed Windows PowerShell failed wi
th error 80070002.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0>

[Edit 3: Now I can't uninstall it.]

[Edit 4: After ripping everything out by hand and reinstalling it seems to be perfectly happy now. Pfft. Might have something to do with RC1's uninstaller not uninstalling everything that I ripped out (I found pieces left in the registry while cleaning up).]

marty reviewed vRC1 Updated on May 13, 2006

1) You don't have to register with M$. Only give them our get (you pretty much have to) a Passport.Net account (using hotmail address.

2) I rate this update to Powershell (or whatever they call it) because the orignal version didn't install on my XP x64 - said I didn't have administrator rights - even if I run the installer in Safe Mode as the Administrator. This one installs but the actual prompt shell is quite inferior to 4NT.

avdven reviewed vRC1 on Apr 26, 2006

sn0wflake: Because of the price of VS 2005 versus this (free)? Also, this is quick and easy. I'm not sure if you have done any development work, but I can tell you that most sys admins I know don't know anything about programming and sure as hell won't be able to figure out how to develop and build an application in VS if they can do it with this in a tenth of the time and without the need for a CS or Engineering background.

Anyway, this is (or at least will be once it's past RC) an absolute necessity for anyone who has to maintain a number of systems (whether networked or otherwise). It's extremely powerful, very easy to learn and helps to simplify many tasks which previously had to be done by hand for anyone who couldn't write a full program to do it.

sn0wflake reviewed vRC1 on Apr 26, 2006

I fail to see the resemblance to the .NET framework. The syntax looks like a weird mix of UNIX, PHP, and DOS. What's the point of using this instead of something made in Visual Studio?

deadmonkey reviewed vRC1 on Apr 25, 2006

A great product but this upsets me...

"Msh.exe" is now replaced with "PowerShell.exe"

Its small things like that which annoy the hell out of me, typing msh at the run prompt was so quick :(

I know I can work around it but still its annoying, even PSH.exe would be better.

Still its an awesome product and I am very happy to use it as it makes so life at work so much easier and more interesting.

The MAZZTer reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 28, 2006

The power and ease of .NET and a scripting language... once I figure out how to use it, I'm gonna be able to script some major arse-kicking.

Zygi reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 28, 2006

Stop your whining boys and girls, because .Net framework would be core of Vista os anyway, so your won't have choice on it. Just look around everything goes into direction of cross platform programming. Programmers love to use Java, .Net. PHP and all other high level languages that take care of memory management so they can focus on more important things. I know they're not easy on cpu or memory, but its not our choice. Don't judge software just because its written in .Net or JAVA.

PS. 1 for s***ty download link, i won't be registering on MS for that, cya later

Mark Gillespie reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 28, 2006

Great Shell.

ssb, your not reviewing the application framework, plus if the app is so good, how can the .NET framework be so bad? Have you seen some of the awesome .NET apps out there? (Paint.NET for example). Seems you just liek finding things to complain about...

ssb reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 28, 2006

Great shell interpreter but...
Horrible development framework (.NET)

marty reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 27, 2006

The download link didn't work for me (404).

Try

http://www.microsoft.com...;oRef=&Hash=563STT7

jcollake reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 27, 2006

In fact, its high memory usage (50mb of RAM+ for x64 version), and slow load times, are an effect of it being a .NET application and therefore these criticisms are more of the .NET framework than this new command shell. In fact, I think it is true that .NET has come out a bit before the average hardware can handle it gracefully, but it won't be long before hardware catches up.

Paradise-FH- reviewed vBeta 3.1 on Feb 27, 2006

it's ridiculous to think that any new piece of software should be able to boot up in milliseconds on technology that's six years old.

microFawad reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 30, 2005

very nice, easy to use and faster command line interface.

nosbig reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 30, 2005

2 secs on a 1.5ghz machine, seems nice enough and vaguely reminisant of DOS 3.3 :) is this the start back down the road to proper command line interfaces :p

deadmonkey reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 30, 2005

It is this product that will change the way administrators and regular users interact with their system. I agree this version is buggy and slow but what else do you expect from a totally new product, written from the ground up in its beta phase?

uberfly reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 29, 2005

sn0wflake - why review it when you haven't even tried it??? Loads pretty fast for me on a 2.8.

sn0wflake reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 29, 2005

I almost started downloading this shell but after reading other peoples comments there's no way I'm trying this. If it loads in ten seconds on a 2 GHz PC and takes 25 MB of memory then there's something completely wrong. A shell is for doing tasks with minimal system resources. This piece of doo-doo is anything but.
If I have to write a complicated script I'd choose VB.NET 1.1 or VBScript.
I'm sorry for this rant but this is the biggest piece of bloatware ever even to Microsoft standards. Try again.

uberfly: Because I'd test it on a 800 MHz PC.

marcelcole reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 29, 2005

I was reading the comment made by sn0wflake and about half way through I quit reading because I realized it was turning into a FLAME. This is a BETA product if you don't like how the BETA acts then SHUT THE **** UP. Stupid people and their stupid ****ing rants. How is that for a flame?!

DiGiTaLFX reviewed vBeta 2 (Updated) on Oct 29, 2005

wow I can do unix commands on windows using an easy to install program :D

Ogdenous reviewed vBeta 2 on Sep 15, 2005

very nice setup, more unix like feel. Took 2 sec to start on 3ghz cpu.

shiften reviewed vBeta 2 on Sep 14, 2005

While it's good to see a more full featured shell comming to windows, does a shell need to take up 25MB of memory and a long time to start? (10sec on 2GHz) Tab completion doesn't work well with directories and a lot of other stuff needs fixed.