Microsoft has fully removed PowerShell 2.0 from preview builds of Windows 11, and the change will roll out for everyone “in an upcoming update.” Most people probably won’t notice the removal, but it’s rare to see changes like these in the Windows operating system.
PowerShell is the primary command line shell for Windows, designed to address the limitations of the Command Prompt that has been around since the days of MS-DOS. PowerShell 2.0 was released in 2009, and even though it has been succeeded by several major updates, some scripts and applications still require the 2.0 shell to function correctly. The lower security restrictions have made it a popular choice for malware in recent years, in much the same way as VBA scripts/macros in Microsoft Office.
Microsoft officially deprecated PowerShell 2.0 all the way back in 2017, so it’s been on the chopping block for a while now. The company said at the time that some of its own applications were still using PowerShell 2.0, including versions of SQL Server and Exchange. Most scripts and applications around today should be using PowerShell 5.0 or later versions as the base requirement, but there might be a few hanging around that still aren’t updated.
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27891 has just been released in the Canary Channel, and it fully removes support for PowerShell 2.0. There aren’t any new details, but Microsoft said “more information will be shared in the coming months on the removal of Windows PowerShell 2.0 in an upcoming update for Windows 11.”
Should You Care?
The removal of PowerShell 2.0 should impact very few people. If you’re a long-time PowerShell user, you might need to update some of your scripts. A few older applications might be using PowerShell 2.0 for some functionality as well, and if one of those break, you’ll need to check with the developer or publisher for an updated release.
If you still have some scripts that run in 2.0 mode using one of these commands, you’ll need to remove them and fix any errors that happen with the default version of PowerShell:
powershell.exe -version 2
powershell -v 2
Killing PowerShell 2.0 won’t affect most people at all, and it closes some long-standing security issues in Windows, which is probably why Microsoft is fine with doing it. Some other recent removals were definitely more noteworthy for the average PC owner, like the loss of WordPad.
Source: Windows Insider Blog
