Powershell – Import Module from newer Powershell Version

powershellwindows 7windows 8windows-server-2012

I was asking myself if I could import PowerShell modules from a newer Windows version.

The *-NetAdapter CMDLets in Windows 8 and 8.1 are quite nice, so I wanted to use 'em in Windows 7 too. Unfortunately they need PowerShell 4.0. I managed to upgrade my local PowerShell and found out that it doesn't include the CMDlets. I found the location of the module on Windows 8 and copied to my Windows 7 machine. When I try to use Get-NetAdapter on Windows 7, I get an error. The error is the following:

 Get-NetAdapter : invalid namespace
 Get-NetAdapter
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  + CategoryInfo          : MetadataError: (MSFT_NetAdapter:ROOT/StandardCim
  v2/MSFT_NetAdapter) [Get-NetAdapter], CimException
  + FullyQualifiedErrorId : HRESULT 0x8004100e,Get-NetAdapter

Is there a way to make this, or other newer CMDLets from Windows 8/Server 2012, available on Windows 7/Server 2008?

Best Answer

No, you can't do this. Many of the PowerShell modules rely on OS-specific WMI namespaces. As these are not present in Windows 7, the modules cannot be imported.

Powershell MVP Richard Siddaway details this in his blog.

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