Microsoft finally bids farewell to PowerShell 2.0

Users still clinging on to PowerShell 2.0 just received notice to quit as the command-line tool is officially leaving Windows.

The confirmation came in a Windows Insider update.

The move away from PowerShell 2.0 is a long time coming; Microsoft has for years encouraged users to move to later versions. Version 5.1 is preinstalled on most modern editions of Windows, and there is a newer, cross-platform version in the form of PowerShell 7.x.

However, version 2 lingered on in the name of backward compatibility, despite the fact it was deprecated in 2017.

PowerShell is a command line tool with a rich scripting language. Admins could use command.com to scratch that Command Line Interface (CLI) itch in the early days of Windows and MS-DOS, and Windows Script Host and a variety of command line interpreters were also available, but it wasn't until the debut of PowerShell that Windows administrators could properly flex their scripting muscles.

PowerShell 2.0 first arrived as a component in Windows 7 ("where it was not an optional feature", according to Microsoft). It was also shipped to other versions of Windows, including Windows Server 2008 and 2003, Vista, and even XP.

Even when later versions superseded it, PowerShell 2.0 remained as an optional side-by-side component.

However, in 2017, Microsoft announced the application would be deprecated. Not removed, but no longer be actively developed. At the time, it noted some of the company's first-party products, such as some versions of SQL Server, still used PowerShell 2.0 "under the hood" and said "Windows PowerShell 2.0 will remain a part of Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, and we have no plans to remove it until those dependencies are mitigated."

Many years and one pandemic later, PowerShell 2.0 has finally come to the end of the road, at least as far as Windows 11 is concerned. While it is removed from most current Insider Preview builds, 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.

PowerShell 2.0 has also long been deprecated for Windows Server, with administrators encouraged to move to a newer version. Microsoft has not yet provided a timeline for its removal from its server operating system. ®