Windows Server 2008 lacks the ability to use Powershell. It’s entirely Command shell based limiting the ability automate certain functions of the server. Part of the challenge of this is the fact that .NET Framework 2.0 is not installable by normal conventions, which is a necessary component to get Powershell operational.
(For those of you wondering why .NET Framework isn’t installable, my understanding is that it was not something they made available because of .NET Frameworks current lack of component-ization.)
Well, it turns out that someone’s pieced together a method of getting it to work on Server Core.
<taken from Dmitry Sotnikov’s blog>
Below is a step-by-step instruction on installing Windows PowerShell on Windows Server 2008 in Server Core mode.
Note that these are in no way official or supported by Microsoft. Microsoft is working on official version of .NET and PowerShell for Server Core installations, so eventually you will be able to get this fully supported.
http://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/powershell-on-server-core/
kurtsh
Kurt Shintaku's Blog 