IT Home, November 12: On November 10, Microsoft announced the release of PowerShell 7.7. This command-line and automation tool, built on .NET 11, focuses on enhanced security, expanded commands, and improved runtime reliability to enhance the daily experience for administrators and developers.
PowerShell is a command-line tool and scripting language developed by Microsoft, primarily used for managing computers, processing data, and automating repetitive tasks. Modern PowerShell is open-source and cross-platform, running on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Regarding support cycles, the official announcement only indicates that PowerShell 7.7 is a Standard Term Support (STS) version, typically lasting 18 months. However, .NET, which PowerShell depends on, has extended the STS support period from 18 to 24 months; therefore, the exact support duration for PowerShell 7.7 should be confirmed based on the official lifecycle table (as of the time of this article’s publication, Microsoft had not yet updated it).
In terms of security enhancements, the new version strengthens operational restrictions under restricted language mode, tightens parameter and message validation for remote operations, and implements stricter validation for extracting help files. The Test-Json command no longer retrieves external schema references by default; users must explicitly enable this feature to minimize unnecessary external access.
In terms of practical features, the new version adds New-TemporaryDirectory to directly create temporary directories; the Join-Path command now supports an extension parameter; and formatting commands such as tables and lists support excluding specified properties to produce more concise output.
Multiple commands have been updated to properly handle switch parameters, ensuring that explicitly passing "off" takes effect correctly. Additionally, the New-Guid command now generates UUID v7 by default, supporting time-based ordering, and no longer uses the previous v4 default behavior.