[NOTE: This is only about software provided by Microsoft, not anything by 3ed party or community provided]

How to properly install and keep PowerShell up to date with the latest patches and updates

The documentation today tell how to do the initial installation in different ways depending on the platform, but there is no info on how to keep PowerShell up-to-date.

How do you manage, support, maintain and keep a PowerShell core up-to-date in a an enterprise environment?

• There's need for a architectural overview on the life-cycle of the PowerShell Core runtime, as well as different modules.

  • Exactly what is Powershell Core?
    • Is it "part of" the Windows operating system?
    • What is the support lifetime for PowerShell Core?
    • What about modules? Will the be around or can they be dropped without support at anytime without notice?
  • Exactly how does powerShell core relate to WindowsPowershell?
    • When do Microsoft recommend Powershell Core (and when not) to be used?
    • When do Microsoft recommend WindowsPowerShell (and when not) to be used?
    • Is Windows Powershell still something Microsoft invest in, or is the way forward Powershell Core?
    • Will all Microsoft products, services, servers and so on provide cmdLets for both Windows PS and PS Core?
  • What are the ambitions of PowerShell Core?
    • Will PS Core in the long run get all the features of Windows PS (like -Computer parameter, workFlows and so on)
    • Will PS Core replace Windows PS in the OS?
  • Best practises for different scenarios of using, running, deploying and maintaining PS Core in a heterogeneous enterprise environment.
    We need to know not only only one way to make something work, but what is the intended way of using things, else it is way too risky to setup and implement it in a an enterprise environment where you have 10s of thousands of machines all over the world. You need to know that you do things the correct way, and the way things are intended to be done (as opposed to the way some guy on StackOverflow might have gotten something to work on "his machine").

• There need to be information on how updates and patches are provided and distributed?

  • Will they show up in Windows Update?
  • Are we to manually check some resource for security and update information?
  • OR what?

• What are the recommended way of updating Powershell Core in an enterprise environment, where you have installations on multiple servers running different versions of Windows and other OS:es, as well as multiple clients running different versions windows. And where the OS on both servers and clients might be in different languages, cultures and time-Zones?

  • Should you push out updates with SCCM/WSUS (or something similar)?
    If not here, than how do you get critical security updates and make sure you don't miss anything?
  • Should you somehow run PowerShell commands on each individual machine (like Update-Module or something like that)? If so what is the recommended way of doing so?

• How do you manage updates of modules that don't work with Update-Module (like for example PowerShellGet)?

• How do you get/install/update the correct/latest documentation/help on all machines (for example, the help for Find-Module ends with this "Get-Help cannot find the Help files for this cmdlet on this computer. It is displaying only partial help.", still, Update-Help makes no difference, but when -Online is used, you are presented with this web page, which has the complete help: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/PowershellGet/Find-Module?view=powershell-5.1)?