Enabling PowerShell on Windows Server 2008
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:56 AM
PowerShell is a tool that administrators need within reach on Windows servers. Learn how quick and easy it is to enable it on Windows Server 2008.
For Windows editions prior to Windows Server 2008, PowerShell was an installable application.
PowerShell now exists as a Windows feature for Windows Server 2008 in all editions except Core. The forthcoming Windows Server 2008 R2 release is, however, scheduled to offer PowerShell support.
To enable the PowerShell feature, I'll show two ways to install it on the Windows Server 2008 server.
Server manager
You can drop PowerShell on the server through the Server manager application. Go to the Features section and select Windows PowerShell. Figure A shows this selection in the Features wizard.
Figure A
Click image to enlarge.
Scripted installation
The other approach that suits many administrators for a semi-automated configuration is to script the installation of Windows components. The ocsetup command can enable PowerShell on Windows Server 2008 with a one-liner.
The command below will add the PowerShell feature to the server:
start ocsetup MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell
Once the server manager window is refreshed, the PowerShell feature will display as being installed, and the PowerShell shortcut will appear in the Start menu in the Windows PowerShell 1.0 program group. PowerShell is now ready for use.
Recommended resource
PowerGUI.org is a very handy Web site that can help you get results quickly with PowerShell. PowerGUI.org is a community of contributed scripts and tools like few other sites; among the resources is the PowerGUI tool used to manage systems based on PowerShell.
Rick Vanover is a systems administrator for Safelite AutoGlass in Columbus, Ohio. He has more than 12 years of IT experience, and he focuses on virtualization, Windows-based server administration, and system hardware.
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