As most of you already know, PowerShell V4 is coming out soon. The preview version or beta or whatever you would like to call is already available via the Windows 2012 R2 download available to MSDN subscribers while the stand-alone downloads will most likely be available soon to check out.

Check out the following link to see the new features, bug fixes and other goodies that will be available with this new release!

http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh857339.aspx

Some of the things that I found interesting:

• Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) is a new management system in Windows PowerShell 4.0 that enables the deployment and management of configuration data for software services, and the environment in which these services run. For more information about DSC, see Get Started with Windows PowerShell Desired State Configuration.
• The default execution policy setting on Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview is RemoteSigned. On Windows 8.1 Preview, there is no change in default setting.
• The Get-Process cmdlet has a new switch parameter, IncludeUserName.
• A new cmdlet, Get-FileHash, that gets information about file hashes, has been added.
• In Windows PowerShell 4.0, if a module uses the DefaultCommandPrefix key in its manifest, or if the user imports a module with the Prefix parameter, the ExportedCommandsproperty of the module shows the commands in the module with the prefix. When you run the commands by using the module-qualified syntax, ModuleName\CommandName, the command names must include the prefix.
• You can now throttle Foreach -Parallel activity statements by using the ThrottleLimit property.
• Support has been added for a new PipelineVariable common parameter in the context of iterative pipelines, such as those used by System Center Orchestrator; that is, pipelines that run commands simply left-to-right, as opposed to interspersed running by using streaming.
• #Requires statements now let users require Administrator access rights, if needed.
• Get-Job now returns any completed scheduled jobs, even in new sessions.
• The Import-Csv cmdlet now ignores blank lines.
• A problem where Windows PowerShell ISE uses too much memory when you are running an Invoke-WebRequest command has been fixed.
• Get-Module now displays module versions in a Version column.
• Remove-Item –Recurse now removes items from subfolders as expected.

Plus much, much more!