PowerShell 2.0 for Windows XP etc.

Posted on by John

PowerShell version 2.0 shipped with Windows 7 and with Windows Server 2008 R2, but it only recently became available for other versions of Windows.

The release of PowerShell 2.0 has been more like a leak than a product launch. The announcement page hardly reads like an announcement. The title reads “Description of the Windows Management Framework on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.” What’s this “Windows Management Framework”? I’ve never heard of that. I just want the new PowerShell. The first time I saw this page was when someone sent me a link saying PowerShell 2.0 was available for XP. I thought they’d sent me the wrong link by mistake because I didn’t see anything about PowerShell at first. Only if you scroll down to the middle of a long page can you see links to download PowerShell.

I expected something more like the following.

PowerShell 2.0 Released

Download for your platform:

  • XP
  • Vista (32 bit, 64 bit)
  • Server 2003 (32 bit, 64 bit)
  • Server 2008 (32 bit, 64 bit)

Related links:

16 thoughts on “PowerShell 2.0 for Windows XP etc.”

  1. iHunger

    I thought the same thing when I looked at that announcement. If it wasn’t for the twitter chatter, and that I REALLY want psh for XP, I might have missed it.

  2. Karl Meissner

    Dont forget. You MUST manually uninstall powershell 1.0 for 2 to install correctly.
    In Add/Remove, click the checkbox “Show Updates” along the top, find Windows Powershell 1.0 and Remove it.

  3. John

    Are you sure? I don’t remember uninstalling version 1.0. Can the installation appear to succeed but not be correct?

  4. Karl Meissner

    Not completely sure I guess. Uninstalling the old version was something your were supposed to do during the CTP. But I did not see that in the release notes of the RTM.

    On my machine I had issues when the two powershell version were side by side. My remote desktop permissions stopped working. The issue resolved when I uninstalled 1.0 and installed 2.0.

    So maybe it varies with environment….

  5. Adam Connor

    The Windows XP install is bundled with WinRM, which I have no reason to want to install. Boo. Pass.

  6. John

    Adam: That is unfortunate if you want to minimize what you install. But PowerShell is bundled with WinRM because some of the new features in PowerShell 2.0 are implemented using WinRM.

  9. Gronkey Kong

    Where do I download PowerShell 2.0 for Windows XP? The links referred to in this post are no longer valid.

  11. Gronkey Kong

    That last post took me to http://blogs.msdn.com/b/powershell/archive/2008/12/30/download-windows-powershell.aspx
    which under Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP3 only has a generic link to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/default.aspx which did not help me as there are many downloads that contain “PowerShell 2.0” string and none that contain “Windows PowerShell 2.0 CTP3”.

    Bu I see now that your XP link is perfectly valid. At the time I was not expecting a Window Update, but now I know better.

    I’m still confused about whether or not I need to uninstall PowerShell 1.0 before running Update for Windows XP (KB968930)
    But I’ll figure it out eventually.

    My purpose for PowerShell 2.0 at present is to automate some tasks against a SharePoint 2010 List. I need to change properties/attributes of the SP List normally done manually through browser.

  14. Dan

    I know it’s ages since you wrote this, but XP link is dead. Thanks for all the information you share.

  15. Marcin Cieślak

    Here’s the description

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/968929

    and this is the XP updated link

    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60cb5b6c-6532-45e0-ab0f-a94ae9ababf5

    or directly

    https://download.microsoft.com/download/E/C/E/ECE99583-2003-455D-B681-68DB610B44A4/WindowsXP-KB968930-x86-ENG.exe

    it seems that it installs into “Powershell v1.0” directory and PS 2.0 does not show up for me, probably because I haven’t removed Powershell 1.0

  16. Marcin Cieślak

    Ouch, I just figured out that my PowerShell is the version 2.0 indeed:

    PS C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> $PSVersionTable

    Name Value
    —- —–
    CLRVersion 2.0.50727.3655
    BuildVersion 6.0.6002.18111
    PSVersion 2.0
    WSManStackVersion 2.0
    PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0}
    SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
    PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.1

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