ansible.windows 3.9.1 Released - Minor Update for the Windows Collection

Introduction

ansible.windows is the collection that ships the core modules and plugins used to manage Windows hosts with Ansible, including win_shell, win_copy, win_service, win_reboot, the winrm and psrp connection plugins, and the WinRM/PSRP related become and inventory helpers. It is a dependency of most Windows-focused content in the Ansible community package and is maintained as part of the ansible.windows namespace on Ansible Galaxy.

A new version, 3.9.1, has been published on Galaxy, moving up from the previously known 3.8.0. This is a patch release on the 3.9.x branch (3.9.0 was skipped in the tracked history, or was not previously indexed), so it should be treated as a routine update rather than a feature drop.

Whats New

At the time of writing, no changelog excerpt was available for version 3.9.1 through the usual release notes feed. This is not unusual for bugfix/patch releases that land between major changelog entries, but it does mean the specific fixes or internal changes in 3.9.1 cannot be listed here with certainty.

To get the authoritative list of changes, consult the collection's CHANGELOG.rst on GitHub or the Galaxy release page directly:

• Galaxy release page: https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/repo/published/ansible/windows/
• GitHub repository: https://github.com/ansible-collections/ansible.windows

Users upgrading from 3.8.0 should check that changelog fragment list before assuming this is purely a no-op bump, since jumping from 3.8.0 to 3.9.1 also means picking up whatever landed in the 3.9.0 minor release in addition to the 3.9.1 patch.

Why this matters for playbooks

Even without a detailed changelog, it is good practice to:

• Re-run the existing Windows test suite or a smoke-test playbook against a non-production Windows host after upgrading.
• Pin the collection version in requirements.yml or collections/requirements.yml until the changelog is confirmed, especially in environments where win_shell, win_copy, or the psrp/winrm connection plugins are used heavily.
• Watch the GitHub releases page for a later changelog update, as maintainers sometimes backfill CHANGELOG.rst entries shortly after tagging a release.

Installation and Verification

Install or upgrade ansible.windows to 3.9.1 with ansible-galaxy:

# Install the exact version
ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows:3.9.1

# Or force an upgrade from an existing install
ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows:3.9.1 --force

# Verify the installed version
ansible-galaxy collection list ansible.windows

If the collection is managed through a requirements.yml file, update the version pin and reinstall:

cat <<'EOF' > requirements.yml
collections:
  - name: ansible.windows
    version: 3.9.1
EOF

ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml

To confirm which modules and plugins ship with this release, and that the installed version matches 3.9.1:

ansible-doc -l ansible.windows
ansible-doc ansible.windows.win_shell | head -n 20

Summary

Until the detailed changelog is published, treat 3.9.1 as a maintenance release of the Windows collection and validate it against existing Windows automation before rolling it out broadly.