I just tried to install Microsoft PowerShell on a Windows Vista Home Basic installation. OK, so it is a power application, and on a home machine, but there are some scripts I really wanted to run here. But guess what, It wont install on Vista home basic. I checked the system requirements at the PowerShell home page and sure enough, no mention of Vista home basic.

But what I think is lousy about this is that when you go to the Choose an edition page of the Vista site, it doesn't say anywhere that you cannot run PowerShell on Vista Basic. I find this a little sneaky. I can understand their logic behind it, perhaps if I want to use a power application, I shouldn't run it on a home basic edition installation, however, lets be honest up front about it.

Well, lets play the game and upgrade to Ultimate or even Home Premium. That is a fairly simple option as the control panel explains, in fact it states You can learn more about editions of Windows Vista, or you can upgrade immediately. How cool is that! All I have to do is click the button, purchase my upgrade, and I will have a shiny new bells and whistles Vista edition, and now I can run PowerShell.

Unfortunately it's not that simple. The upgrade options fire up a Windows anytimeUpgrade web page to begin the process. Here I can select my billing location, and proceed. Unfortunately the only options are to bill to the United States, or Canada. Here in Australia we actually have the internet and are capable of online shopping. Why is it so difficult to provide an upgrade option online? So I can't really upgrade instantly as advertised.

It looks like I will have to put this off unless I feel like going to a shop to upgrade. I will be upgrading, but due to the experiences with various versions of Vista, I will be upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Monday, March 10, 2008 9:28:08 PM (AUS Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10:00)       Comments [0]  PowerShell | Vista