Prerequisites
The main prerequisite for installing CAT is PowerShell 7.
In order to install CAT and use it, you need:
Recent version of Windows
CAT is supported on both clients and servers. You need either Windows 10 or later or Windows Server 2016 or later.
Linux is not yet supported, but technically it will be relatively easy to implement it, which we’ll do if there will be such demands from users.
PowerShell 7
What Versions of PowerShell Are Supported?
Default installation of Windows system comes with PowerShell 5 (Windows PowerShell). Please note this version does not get new features and PowerShell evolved significantly since version 5. Actual version of PowerShell is 7.4.
| Windows PowerShell (PowerShell 5) | PowerShell 7 (aka PowerShell Core) |
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| CAT does not work on this old version | CAT works on this version |
You technically can run Install-Module CAT in PowerShell 5 without errors, but CAT will not work.
How Do I Know What Version of PowerShell I Have?
I don’t know what version of PowerShell I have, what do I do? Run this command:
$PSVersionTable
You will get the version on PSVersion row. If it starts with 5, like on this picture, you will need to install PowerShell 7:
If it starts with 7, like on this picture, you are OK:
How Do I Install PowerShell 7?
Go to this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-on-windows?view=powershell-7.3#msi
Download the MSI installer, most likely you need x64 bit version:
The installation is straight-forward, just keep clicking Next, Next, Next, …
Versions of PowerShell vs Versions of CAT
PowerShell evolves and so does CAT. Microsoft releases new versions of PowerShell with long term support (LTS) every second year. This LTS release is supported for three years. To take advantage of the new features and improved speed, we need to adapt CAT to new versions.
As a result it means you need at least once in three years upgrade PowerShell.
| Version of CAT | Supported version of PowerShell |
|---|---|
| 0.* | 7.2 |
| 1.* | 7.4 |
If this is a problem, use CAT CLI instead - it has no dependencies and is self-contained (contains all runtimes it needs for running).
Provider Specific Drivers
The mentioned prerequisites (recent MS Windows and PowerShell 7) are all prerequisites for using majority of CAT features. However, if you want to e.g., run tests against MS Excel files or models in open Power BI Desktop files, you might need to install additional drivers.
CAT allows access to data through implemented providers, and some of them might need additional software installed. In those cases, these additional prerequisites are mentioned in the documentation of the provider. In the Providers overview, you can see what providers need additional drivers installed and what providers work out-of-the-box.