What's New in the AppFabric Release Candidate

The Windows Server AppFabric Release Candidate was, well, released last week. Here's a quick look at changes from Beta 2.

What's New in PowerShell

Possibly the most visible change is the return of the Start Menu item for Powershell with the AppFabric module pre-loaded.

This fires up the Powershell console and runs 'Import-Module DistributedCacheAdministration' from the command-line, with the No-Exit switch to keep the console open. However it seems (at least on my Windows 7 machine) that there is something not quite right with this, as I now have to Exit from Powershell twice before the console actually closes. I've checked this on a VM running Windows Server 2008 as well as my Windows 7 laptop and it behaves the same on both platforms. Usefully, however, it also runs 'Use-CacheCluster', which if you're anything like me, saves you trying to run a cache command, then running Use-CacheCluster, then running your original command again.











I'm slightly disapppointed that the cachehelp command hasn't made a reappearance, so overall for Powershell I think I'll stick with my customised profile for importing the AppFabric commandlets.

What's New in Licensing
Err, nothing. There is no Go-Live license for the Release Candidate, although to be fair you might as well now wait another few weeks for the v1 release.

What's New in the Caching API
Again, nothing (that I can see), although since Beta 2 was the feature-complete release, it would be wrong to be making changes now.