Windows Management

Framework RC Release
June, 2009

Abstract

This document describes the RC release for Microsoft Windows Management

Framework on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows
Server 2003.
Contents
Overview
3
Requirements
3
Installation Instructions
3
Known Issues
4
Get Started with Testing 6
Suggested Scenarios for Preproduction Testing 7
Contact Microsoft 7

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 2

Disclaimer
This is a preliminary document and may be changed prior to final commercial release of the software
described herein.
The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the
issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot
guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
This White Paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights
under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval
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Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property
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intended or should be inferred.
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their
respective owners.

June, 2009
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 3

Overview
The Microsoft Windows Management Framework Release Candidate (RC) build for
Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003
includes the following components:
WinRM 2.0
Windows Remote Management (WinRM) is the Microsoft implementation of
WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows 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.
PowerShell 2.0
Microsoft Windows PowerShell is a new command-line shell and scripting
language designed for system administration and automation. Built on the .NET
Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to
control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.
BITS 4.0
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (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. Both downloads and uploads are
supported. Unlike other protocols that transfer files in the foreground, BITS
transfers files in the background (by default). Background transfers use only idle
network bandwidth in an effort to preserve the users interactive experience with
other network applications, such as Internet Explorer. Foregound (or normal)
transfers are also supported
This RC release is available in English, German and Japanese. The final release
will be available in a broader set of languages.
Please note that this build is an RC release and should not be deployed on self-host
systems as there may be issues with installation/uninstallation and general usability.

Requirements
Microsoft Windows Management Framework is designed for systems that wish to
use the new Windows Management features on downlevel platforms. The following
system requirements and hardware requirements are necessary to test with this RC
release.
The system must have the following software installed:
Windows Vista SP1, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows
Server 2008 RTM, Windows XP SP3, or Windows Server 2003 SP2

Installation Instructions
The following are the installation instructions for the Windows Management
Framework RC release. These steps may change for the final release.

June, 2009
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 4

Steps to installation:
1. Please select the file that matches the architecture on your computer, the
version of Windows on your computer, and the components you wish to install:
o Architecture: x86 or x64
o Windows Version: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008,
Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003
o Components: Core (WinRM 2.0 and PowerShell 2.0) or BITS 4.0
2. Copy the appropriate file from the website to your local desktop.
3. Double click the file and launch the installer.
The installation will prompt for a reboot.

Known Issues
The default WinRM ports changed
The default ports used when creating new WinRM listeners have changed from 80
to 5985 for HTTP and from 443 to 5986 for HTTPS. Any listeners created manually
without specifying a port, or listeners created using the WinRM quick config
command, will listen on these new ports. Similarly, the default ports used when
issuing requests from the client have changed from 80/443 to 5985/5986. Any client
requests sent out without specifying a port are sent to these new ports. When
upgrading, if the default client ports are currently set to something other than
80/443, they will not be modified. The settings for any WinRM listeners on port 80
(HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS) are automatically migrated to listeners on the new ports
during upgrade. The existing listeners on ports 80/443 are flagged as compatibility
listeners, and continue to listen on these ports. Any listeners that exist on ports
other than 80/443 will not be modified in any way.
If you pass a computer name to the winrm command line, such as
r:<Computername> without specifying a port, then the default client client port
from the WinRM configuration is used (initially set to 5985/5986). If you pass a
connection URI to the winrm command line, such as r:http://Mycomputer/wsman,
then the URI will be interpreted in the same way as Internet Explorer interprets it
(using ports 80/443 as default).
When ComputerName is passed to the New-PSSession PowerShell cmdlet, if a
port is not specified then the default client port setting in the WinRM configuration is
used (initially set to 5985/5986). When ConnectionUri is passed to the NewPSSession cmdlet, then the string will be interpreted in the same way as Internet
Explorer interprets it (using ports 80/443 as default).
WinRM requests for DMTF resources return a new selector
When requesting a WinRM resource, if the specified resource URI is a DMTF URI
(meaning it begins with the prefix http://schemas.dmtf.org/), then the
__cimnamespace selector is included as a part of the endpoint reference that is
returned in the response message.
BITS peer-caching is not compatible between versions 3.0 and 4.0
This release will install BITS 4.0 on your machine. BITS 4.0 leverages the Windows
BranchCache infrastructure to provide peer-to-peer file transfer functionality. It
does not inter-operate with the BITS 3.0 peer-caching solution; therefore, clients
running BITS 3.0 will not be able to share data with peers running BITS 4.0. A
BranchCache enabled server is required for peer-to-peer file transfers.

June, 2009
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 5

Current BITS jobs lost if BITS 4.0 is uninstalled

Uninstalling the version of BITS included in this WTR (i.e. downgrading from BITS
4.0 to BITS 3.0) will cause all current BITS transfer jobs in the queue to be lost.
Files which have not completed downloading will be unrecoverable with associated
temporary files blocking disk space until they are explicitly deleted. It is therefore
recommended that the BITS WTR package not be uninstalled when there are jobs
in the BITS queue. The BITS job queue can be explicitly cleared via the following
BITSAdmin command :- Bitsadmin /reset /allusers.
Upgrade from PowerShell 1.0 is blocked
Installing Windows Management Framework Core (WinRM 2.0 and PowerShell 2.0)
on Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP with PowerShell 1.0 installed is not
supported. Users must first uninstall PowerShell 1.0 before installing this package.
Breaking changes from PowerShell 1.0 to PowerShell 2.0
Windows PowerShell 2.0 installs under the System32/WindowsPowerShell/V1.0
folder. PowerShell 2.0 is backward-compatible with PowerShell 1.0. However, the
following points should be noted:

Breaking changes from PowerShell 1.0

o The value of the PowerShellVersion registry entry in
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\PowerShellE
ngine is changed to 2.0.
o New cmdlets and variables have been added. These
additions might conflict with variables and functions
in profiles and scripts.
o The -IEQ operator performs a case-insensitive
comparison on characters.
o The Get-Command cmdlet gets functions by default,
in addition to getting cmdlets.
o Native commands that generate a user interface
cannot be piped to the Out-Host cmdlet.
o The new Begin, Process, End, and Dynamic Param
language keywords might conflict with similar words
used in scripts and functions. Interpreting these
words as language keywords might result in parsing
errors.
o Cmdlet name resolution has changed. In Windows
PowerShell 1.0, a runtime error was generated when
two Windows PowerShell snap-ins exported cmdlets
with the same name. In Windows PowerShell 2.0, the
last cmdlet that is added to the session runs when
you type the command name. To run a command that
does not run by default, qualify the cmdlet name with
the name of the snap-in or module in which it
originated.
o A function name followed by '-?' gets the help topic
for the function, if one is included in the function.
o Parameter resolution for Microsoft .NET Framework
methods have changed. In Windows PowerShell 1.0, if
you called an overloaded .NET method that has more

June, 2009
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 6

than one best-fit syntax, no error was reported. In

Windows PowerShell 2.0, an ambiguity error is
reported. In addition, in Windows PowerShell 2.0, the
algorithm for choosing the best-fit method has been
revised significantly to minimize the number of
ambiguities.
If you are enumerating a collection in the pipeline and
you try to modify the collection in the pipeline,
Windows PowerShell throws an exception.
For example, the following commands would work in Windows
PowerShell 1.0 but would fail after first pipeline iteration in
Windows PowerShell 2.0:
$h = @{Name="Hello"; Value="Test"}
$h.keys | foreach-object {$h.remove($_)}
To avoid this error, create a sub-expression for the enumerator
by using the $() characters. For example:
$($h.keys) | foreach-object {$h.remove($_)}

Restricted verbs and characters: If you use the ImportModule cmdlet to load commands that use unapproved
verbs or restricted characters in the command name, you
will receive a warning. Use the Get-Verb command to see a
list of the approved verbs. Do not use any of the following
characters in command names: [ # , ( ) { } [ ] & - / \ $ ^ ;
:"'<>|?@`*~%+=

Reserved keywords and parameter names: Windows

PowerShell 2.0 has reserved certain keywords as part of
language syntax and some names that can be used as
parameters to commands, as follows:
o Reserved language keywords: USING, CLASS, DEFINE,
and VAR
o Reserved parameter names: SelectProperty and
SelectObject

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) hardware

acceleration: The graphical elements of Windows
PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) might not
render correctly if you are using Windows Presentation
Foundation (WPF) hardware acceleration. If the graphical
elements do not render correctly, disable the WPF hardware
acceleration, especially if you are using older video drivers
or virtualization software. For more information, see
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144711.

Help over remoting might not work: If a user is calling

the get-help Windows PowerShell command over Windows
PowerShell remoting from a highly/partially (not fully)
localized operating system, the help content will not be

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2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows Management Framework RC Release - 7

displayed. Users will see only the command syntax, but no

help content for the command and its parameter. To work
around this issue, users should copy a localized help file
(whichever one they want to make the default) from the
localized folder under
c:\windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\<locale> to
the application/module base folder. (The default path for
Windows PowerShell commands is
c:\windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0.)

Get Started with Testing

Log in to Microsoft Connect, click My Participation, select this RC program, and
then, in the left-hand sidebar, click Feedback.
The web site provides a tool for searching the database of reported bugs and a tool
for entering new bug reports. If youre unfamiliar with reporting bugs for
preproduction software, review WUR Beta Bug writing guidelines document,
which is available for download with this document and the software.
Remember the basics:
Provide as much detail as you can about your computer: system
configuration (including wireless radio model and firmware), device
configuration, operating system, driver versions, related software versions,
etc
Describe what you were trying to do when the issue occurred, and then
what happened versus what you expected. The more details you provide,
the more likely it is that we can reproduce and fix the problem.
Screenshots are also very helpful. Please use the snipping tool in vista to
capture it.
If any of the preproduction programs crash, a body of debugging
information is available to the Windows clipboard. Press Ctrl+c to copy this
information the clipboard, and then press Ctrl+v to paste this information
into the bug report. It would be ideal to make arrangements with your
Microsoft liaison to submit a kernel or full dump (minidumps will not be
useful).
Please run the necessary logging tools (as outlined in the bug reporting
guidelines document) and include the captured trace log(s) in the bug
report. Without the log, the bugs may be closed if we can not successfully
reproduce the issue.

Contact Microsoft
Windows Management Framework
For any administrative or blocking issues with this preproduction release send a
descriptive e-mail message to our support alias mspwtrvt@microsoft.com.

June, 2009
2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.