PowerGUI® Pro and PowerGUI® 2.4 are now available!

I am pleased to announce that PowerGUI Pro 2.4 and PowerGUI 2.4 have been released to the web and are now available for download!

This release includes the following improvements:

Easy Remote Script Execution (PowerGUI Pro only)

The PowerGUI Pro Script Editor now supports easy remote execution of scripts.  You can now run an entire script or a portion of a script on one or more systems using PowerShell 2.0 remoting.  This feature allows you to either provide a static list of computer names or you can select a remoting configuration that you want to use when running your script remotely.

See that View Remoting Script button in the screenshot above?  You can use that button to generate a script that will run your script remotely.  Clicking on that button will open the remoting script in a new document in the Script Editor so that you can then save it separately and then use it on other machines, in a scheduled task, a background job, etc.

The remoting configurations support allows you to use a static list of computer names or a script to dynamically determine the list of target computers.  You can also configure any remoting options that should be used when running the script.  This includes options for configuring the URI address, proxy server credentials, certificates, security context, background job support, throttling, and other more advanced items.

Remoting configurations support every remoting option that is directly available in PowerShell 2.0, and some options that are not directly available as well.

Improved MobileShell Experience with Collapsible Command Groups (PowerGUI Pro only)

When you are accessing PowerGUI Pro MobileShell from your mobile device, your commands will now appear inside of collapsible groups.  There will be one group for favorite commands and one group for each module associated to your MobileShell user account.  This new user experience makes it easier to work with a large set of commands from small mobile devices such as an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone 7 device.

Add-on Discovery and Installation

In both PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI, the Script Editor now allows you to search for Add-ons and install them with a single button click.  This eliminates the need to manually download, unblock and load Script Editor Add-ons. With this feature you can search for Add-ons using keywords or phrases like “script signing” or “transcription”, or you can see a list of all Add-ons that are available by performing a search with no keywords.  Just open the Tools menu, and then click on Find Add-ons Online… to search for Add-ons in the Add-on category on PowerGUI.org.

Once you see the Add-on you want to install, simply click on it and then click on the Install button and the Add-on will download, install and load automatically in your Script Editor.

Remote session Intellisense, Syntax Highlighting and F1 Help

In an earlier release of PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI we added support for the Enter-PSSession and Exit-PSSession cmdlets to the Script Editor to allow you to work with remote systems from within remote sessions.  In this release we’ve taken that support further, providing you with Intellisense, Syntax Highlighting and F1 help support while you are working inside of a remote session.  This makes it much easier to work with servers such as Exchange 2010 or SharePoint 2010, where remoting is required.

Automatic Reload of Modules on Runspace Reset

PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI allow you to automatically reset your runspace every time you start debugging.  This is a feature we have had for a long time, and it allows you to debug from a clean system state.  In 2.4, this support has been enhanced so that modules are automatically reloaded when the runspace is reset in this manner, ensuring that you only have loaded what you want to have loaded.  This also ensures that any module On Remove event handlers are called before modules are reloaded again, and that modules are in a clean state when you start debugging.

Script Editor SDK Enhancements

This release of PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI includes several enhancements to the Script Editor SDK that allow you to create more advanced Add-ons than you could in the past.  New to this version is an Execute method on the root of the SDK that allows you to invoke PowerShell commands as if you had typed them into the embedded console.  This allows more control over how Add-ons send feedback back to the end user.  Also new to this version, you can now directly access the colors used in the embedded PowerShell console via the SDK, allowing you to apply whatever color theme you want for your day-to-day use of the Script Editor.  Menu item and toolbar capabilities have been enhanced as well, so that you can get or set Checkable, Checked and Enabled properties on commands in the Script Editor, and the corresponding menu items and toolbar buttons will automatically show you the appropriate change in state.

How to Install or Upgrade

If you haven’t tried PowerGUI Pro, now’s a great time to do so.  The new remoting feature is just great, and MobileShell keeps getting better and better every time we release.  If you want to try it out, go to www.powerguipro.com and click on the Try button to try it out for a bit.

To upgrade to the new release, you can either manually check for updates by clicking on Check for Updates from the Help menu, or you can wait until the next day that you start up one of the components and it will detect the update for you automatically.  If you have disabled auto-update or if you are working on a system that does not have online access, you can download the bits for offline install by visiting Quest SupportLink if you are using PowerGUI Pro or the PowerGUI downloads page if you are using the free version of PowerGUI.

Share your feedback!

I’d love to hear what you think of these new releases, so please let me know in the comments on this blog post or in our forums on PowerGUI.org.  This is only the first of many exciting releases we have planned for this year.  If you have features you would like to see added or changed in the product, please share your feedback with us.  It directly influences what we include in our releases, and ultimately makes PowerGUI Pro and PowerGUI better for everyone!

Thanks,

Kirk out.