Using PowerShell with .NET 3.5 runtime/libraries

If you have 3.5 installed on your system, that is what you'll get when you run PowerShell.

PowerShell is only "requires" 2.0 but 3.0 and 3.5 are compatible and autoforward when installed. In PowerShell V2, we actually look to see what version you have and "light up" certain features (e.g. PowerShell_ISE and Out-GridView are available when you have 3.51).

Experiment! Enjoy! Engage!

Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]Windows Management Partner Architect

As long as your get your fully qualified name right, I don't see why this wouldn't work:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load("System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089")

I only used Linq as that was the first one to come to mind. At that point, the ddl is loaded, and you can create/use objects out of that.

PowerShell was built against 2.0, so you don't have any options but to have 2.0 present at least. But like James says, you can load 3.0 and 3.5 functionality by loading the appropriate assembly. LINQ is a good example from 3.5, but you can also do WPF (3.0) from PowerShell. Be mindful of STA and MTA for WPF though, as only PowerShell v2 has full support for WPF (full support for thread affinity).