PowerShell 7.1 lands, and it's in the Microsoft Store for the first time

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PowerShell 7.1 is rolling out to all platforms, and for the first time, the Microsoft Store.

Windows Powershell
Windows Powershell (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • PowerShell 7.1 is now available across all major platforms.
  • It's the first version of PowerShell to be available through the Microsoft Store.
  • PowerShell 7.1 doesn't have any new features, instead focusing on improvements.

PowerShell 7.1 is now available across all major platforms. You can download the latest version of PowerShell for Windows, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, Alpine, and macOS. In addition to rolling out to all major platforms, for the first time ever, PowerShell is available through the Microsoft Store.

PowerShell 7.1 doesn't include any major new features. Instead, its developers prioritized fixing issues and building on top of PowerShell 7.0. Some big changes came with PowerShell 7.0, including a move from .NET Core 2.x to version 3.1. At its release, PowerShell 7.0 was called the "one, true PowerShell" because it unified Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core.

A new Microsoft devblogs post](/), describes how the PowerShell team focused on building on the foundation of PowerShell 7.0:

For PowerShell 7.1, we decided to build on the foundation established in PowerShell 7.0 with a strong focus on community issues, especially where we could make additive changes and quality-of-life improvements without introducing instability or breaking changes. As a platform with over 115 million sessions per month, we're absolutely committed to ensuring that PowerShell remains a stable and performant platform, even after significant version upgrades like 7.1.

The complete changelog (opens in new tab) for PowerShell 7.1 doesn't list any major new features either. It does list a few experimental features:

  • Add -Runspace parameter to all *-PSBreakpoint cmdlets (#10492) (Thanks @KirkMunro!)
  • Support passing PSPath to native commands (#12386)
  • Use invariant culture string conversion for -replace operator (#10954) (Thanks @iSazonov!)

The changelog also includes a long list of fixes and guides or links for installing PowerShell on different devices.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott

Sean Endicott is the news writer for Windows Central. If it runs Windows, is made by Microsoft, or has anything to do with either, he's on it. Sean's been with Windows Central since 2017 and is also our resident app expert. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.
10 Comments
  • Do I have to uninstall PowerShell 7,before installing 7.1 using the Microsoft Store?
  • No, 7.1 is an in-place upgrade to both 6.0 and 7.1.
  • I think the store version and other versions can coexist, but I'm not sure.
  • Just tested - this is true. They will coexist if you install from the Store. You can uninstall the old version before or after you install the new one.
  • I can't find it in the MS Store unfortunately, would be nice to manage the install that way.
  • It's a slow rollout. Was announced yesterday or two days ago, I'm only just seeing it now. But it was not the first result in the list, quite a ways down, despite search "Powershell". Also, the logo for 7 is black instead of Blue
  • Good to know and thanks!
  • Some important things to note, because of how this is packaged. You can't edit the AllUsersAllHosts profile (to my knowledge) because that's stored in a write-protected area of the file system.
    I also think that if you're not admin (I have several accounts) and you try to run it as admin, but you don't have it installed on your admin account, it won't work, since store apps are local install only and admin in windows runs it from the point of view of the admin account, versus sudo on linux which is a little different. However, haven't tried that recently, and I may be confusing it with another issue that I had. Edit: tried both of these things and they are both correct. So if you have a user account that you use PowerShell in and occasionally need admin elevation, remember to install there as well. More info about the profile stuff can be found in the windows store section of https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing...
  • The article miss a link to the store
  • This is great! MSIX installers are a lot secure and don't leave junk behind while uninstalling helping your PC run smoother and be efficient for longer.