This week, Microsoft will be releasing a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows PowerShell v2.0.  Now - before you rush out to find, download and use the CTP, there is a very important point to remember: This release will not be for everyone.  A CTP is NOT a Beta Release.  A CTP is a very early release of the technology that has the following goals:

1. Let the community understand where we are taking the technology
2. Let the community provide feedback on that direction in time for us to change before we ship.

One of the frustrations surrounding almost all Beta programs (not just Microsoft's) is that the feedback is provided at a time when it is difficult to make changes to the product.  At the end of the release, you want to minimize the code changes because one out of every X changes you make breaks something else that you won't detect.  The way it works is that there is a standard for what bugs will get fixed and that standard gets tighter and tighter as the release moves forward.

So while the CTP gives you early access to v2:

1. The functions delivered in the CTP will change!  If you use the CTP there's no guarantee that your scripts are going to work in the final release - they may not even work in the next CTP or Beta as things change.  If that's not something you're comfortable with, then you want to wait for the full release.
2. CTP bits have not gone through the same QA process as Beta bits.  Although the PowerShell team has a pretty rigorous QA process, there are a lot of additional steps that go into releasing a full Beta build that are not done for the CTP builds.
3. Documentation is not complete, fully edited or fully reviewed.

The PowerShell CTP runs on x86 and x64 versions of Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Vista (RTM and SP1), and Windows Server 2008.  There are Remoting features included in the PowerShell CTP which use the latest version of WS-Management (WinRM).  The Remoting features will not function correctly if this is not installed.

The folks over at the PowerShell blog have several posts that go into greater detail that are listed below, so make sure you read them carefully before you download and install the CTP build.  Until next time ...

Additional Resources from the PowerShell Blog:

• PowerShell v2 CTP (Watch this Space)
• PowerShell v2 CTP (Versioning)
• PowerShell v2 CTP (Platform Requirements)
• PowerShell v2 CTP (CTP != Beta!)

- CC Hameed