Windows 11 Is Finally Removing PowerShell 2.0

Microsoft has completely removed PowerShell 2.0 from Windows 11 preview versions, and the change will be deployed for everyone “in a future update”. Most people will probably not notice the withdrawal, but it is rare to see changes like these in the Windows operating system.

PowerShell is the main command line shell for Windows, designed to meet the limits of the command prompt that has existed since the MS-Dos era. PowerShell 2.0 was published in 2009, and even if it has been succeeded by several major updates, some scripts and applications always require that Shell 2.0 is working properly. The lower security restrictions have made a popular choice for malware in recent years, in the same way as VBA scripts / macros in Microsoft Office.

Microsoft officially disconnected PowerShell 2.0 in 2017, so it has been on blocking for some time now. The company said at the time that some of its own applications still used PowerShell 2.0, including the versions of SQL Server and Exchange. Most scripts and applications around today should use PowerShell 5.0 or subsequent versions as a basic requirement, but there may be some that are not yet updated.

The construction of the Windows 11 27891 initiate has just been published in the Canary channel, and it fully removes the management of PowerShell 2.0. There are no new details, but Microsoft said that “more information will be shared in the coming months on deleting Windows PowerShell 2.0 in a next update for Windows 11.”

Should you worry about it?

The abolition of PowerShell 2.0 should have a very few impact. If you are a longtime user of PowerShell, you may have to update some of your scripts. Some older applications could also use PowerShell 2.0 for certain features, and if one of these ruptures, you will need to check with the developer or the editor for an updated version.

If you still have scripts that run in 2.0 mode using one of these commands, you will have to delete them and correct all the errors that occur with the default version of Powershell:

        powershell.exe -version 2
powershell -v 2

    

Killing PowerShell 2.0 will not affect most people at all, and he closes some long -standing safety problems in Windows, that’s probably why Microsoft agrees to do so. Certain other recent moves were definitely more remarkable for the average owner of the PC, such as the loss of WordPad.

Source: Windows Insider blog