Powershell

Microsoft released a Preview of the Windows Management Framework V5. As in the past, this package ships with the according version of Powershell. Powershell V5 will bring interesting new Features.

Among those are:

1. OneGet module with a set of comandlets to manage Software packages
2. Commandlets to manage L2 Layer Network Switches

Find the introduction article for Windows Managagement Framework V5 by Jeffrey Snover here on TechNet.

You can dowload the Preview here.

However, the mixture of Powershell Versions we find at customer Environments will get wider and wider. Same is valid for modules like ActiveDirectory or SnapIns for Exchange. One will need to start with a lot of checks in the beginning of the code when a script is planned to be used universally.