Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, are officially released to the world.
Windows Management Framework makes some updated management functionality in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 available to be installed on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. Windows Management Framework contains Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0, Windows PowerShell 2.0 and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 4.0.
IT Professionals can now easily manage their Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines through PowerShell remoting. Again a huge step forward!
Windows PowerShell 2.0
Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language that is designed for system administration and Automation. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.
New features that are introduced in Windows PowerShell 2.0 include the following:
- Remoting
- Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE)
- Modules
- Advanced functions
- Background jobs
- Eventing
- Script internationalization
- Script debugging
- New cmdlets
WinRM 2.0
WinRM is the Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)–based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows for hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. The WS-Management Protocol specification provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across an IT infrastructure.
WinRM 2.0 includes the following new features:
- The WinRM Client Shell API provides functionality to create and manage shells and shell operations, commands, and data streams on remote computers.
- The WinRM Plug-in API provides functionality that enables a user to write plug-ins by implementing certain APIs for supported resources and operations.
- WinRM 2.0 introduces a hosting framework. Two hosting models are supported. One is Internet Information Services (IIS)-based and the other is WinRM service-based.
- Association traversal lets a user retrieve instances of Association classes by using a standard filtering mechanism.
- WinRM 2.0 supports delegating user credentials across multiple remote computers.
- Users of WinRM 2.0 can use Windows PowerShell cmdlets for system management.
- WinRM has added a specific set of quotas that provide a better quality of service and allocate server resources to concurrent users. The WinRM quota set is based on the quota infrastructure that is implemented for the IIS service.
BITS 4.0
BITS is a service that transfers files between a client and a server. BITS provides a simple way to reliably and politely transfer files over HTTP or HTTPS. File downloads and file uploads are supported. By default, BITS transfers files in the background, unlike other protocols that transfer files in the foreground. Background transfers use only idle network bandwidth in order to preserve the user’s interactive experience with other network applications, such as Internet Explorer. Foreground or typical transfers are also supported.
BITS 4.0 includes the following new features:
- Peer caching now uses Windows BranchCache. This new peer caching model replaces the model that is used for BITS 3.0.
- A more flexible resource access model allows for applications to associate a pair of security tokens to a BITS transfer job.
- The BITS Compact Server is a stand-alone HTTP/HTTPS file server that lets you transfer a limited number of large files asynchronously between computers.
- More precise bandwidth throttling.
For more information: KB968929, KB968930
Download all components here
Download Windows Management Framework Core for Windows Server 2008 x86, Windows Server 2008 x64, Windows Server 2003 x86, Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows Vista x86, Windows Vista x64, Windows XP x86