Hi there

I've never used the powershell very much. Today I discovered this graphical bug in the rendering of the console text output:
https://i.imgur.com/H40F15W.png
This bug was very confusing at first. Then it just kept getting more irritating.
The bug appears when I scroll up and down, at the bottom of the window. Sometimes text gets cut off at the sides too, but only if I change the window width.
I think I remember I had similiar issues years ago on a different computer.

I couldn't find anything related on google. Maybe I used the wrong search terms?

Although totally unrelated: Please unblock icw-mss setting in tcp for atleast one profile. (Doesn't hurt to keep pressing this)

Only Parallel, Queue, and IgnoreNew are supported right now. One would expect that the option available from the Task Scheduler GUI would be available in the powershell interface.

Steps to reproduce

$a = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -MultipleInstances StopExisting

Expected behavior

The task's multiple instances policy is set to kill existing tasks before starting another instance.
Actual behavior

value "StopExisting" to type "Microsoft.PowerShell.Cmdletization.GeneratedTypes.ScheduledTask.MultipleInstancesEnum".
Error: "Unable to match the identifier name StopExisting to a valid enumerator name. Specify one of the following
enumerator names and try again:
Parallel, Queue, IgnoreNew"
At line:1 char:131
+ ... ngOnBatteries -ExecutionTimeLimit $b -MultipleInstances StopExisting
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet], ParameterBindingArgumentTransformationE
xception
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentTransformationError,New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet

According to this question on stackoverflow, it has been reported, but Microsoft Connect no longer is alive, so I couldn't follow the bug. Google searching powershell bug report brought me here, not sure if it's the right place though.

When passing a hashtable to a function parameter that expects a PSCustomObject, PowerShell does not fully convert the hashtable to a PSCustomObject type.

function Test-1 {
param(
[PSCustomObject] $Foo
)

Write-Host "`$Foo's type is: $( $Foo.GetType().Name )" -Fore Green
Write-Host "`$Foo is a PSCustomObject: $( $Foo -is [PSCustomObject] )" -Fore Green
Write-Host "`$Foo has these properties:" -Fore Green

foreach ($prop in ($Foo | Get-Member -MemberType NoteProperty| Select -ExpandProperty Name))
{
Write-Host "`t$prop" -Fore Green
}
}

PS C:\Users\dabelc> Test-1 -Foo ( @{ "CustomProp" = "Value" } )
$Foo's type is: Hashtable
$Foo is a PSCustomObject: True
$Foo has these properties:

PS C:\Users\dabelc> Test-1 -Foo ( [PSCustomObject] @{ "CustomProp" = "Value" } )
$Foo's type is: PSCustomObject
$Foo is a PSCustomObject: True
$Foo has these properties:
CustomProp

SCENARIO
On Machine1:
SCHTASKS /Create /RU SYSTEM /SC ONSTART /TN "Map I drive" /TR "net use I: \\someServer\someShare somePassword /user:someDomain\someUser"

On Machine2 run:
$Script = { Write-Output "Hello world!" }
Invoke-Command -ComputerName Machine1 -ScriptBlock $Script

As a result you get "Hello world!" but also an error
"Attempting to perform the InitializeDefaultDrives operation on the 'FileSystem' provider failed."

The error belongs to I drive which should have been returned as a warning and not error. The invoke does not even use the I drive so why fail on it (we in this case dont even want the invoke to have access to the I drive why using credssp is not a solution)

OUR REQUEST
Dont return FileSystem errors (for at least network drives) as errors, but warning/Information.

COMMENT
The command runs perfect locally on Machine1 and can list drives with [System.IO.DriveInfo]::getdrives() which shows the I drive is not ready from remote (and we dont want it to be either).

I am grateful for the addition of classes in PS, and I know why PowerShell classes do not support true data hiding, but it is a significant shortcoming. It does not allow full control of setting a property for example. I can write my own class method for setting it, but it can be changed outside of that method. And if that method also updates the value of another class property, it can get changed directly, without going through the desired logic so the class method can be bypassed.
And it is nice to have the get_ and set_ automatically defined for class properties, but at times I want to disallow a set_ and I am unable to do so (as far as I can tell). If there is a way to do so already, please let me know.
So I would like hidden to be hidden or a private attribute or whatever. Without it, we are reduced to a somewhat cleaner bit of procedural programming.

The following codes were extracted to test a simple $arrayName += $NewObject code that kept replacing the entire array with each new $NewObject.
# *** START
$dataArray = @() # Array to store data
$outputProperty = @{
Hostname = $Null
IPv4 = $Null
MAC = $Null
MACDesc = $Null
}

$dataObject = New-Object -TypeName PSObject -Property $outputProperty

$dataObject.Hostname = 'Computer 1'
$dataObject.IPv4 = '111.111.111.1111'
$dataObject.MAC = '11:11:11:11:11:11'
$dataObject.MACDesc = 'NIC 1'

"Content of dataObject: $dataObject"
# Line 1 **********
$dataArray += $dataObject
"Content of dataArray: $dataArray"

$dataObject.Hostname = 'Computer 2'
$dataObject.IPv4 = '222.222.222.222'
$dataObject.MAC = '22:22:22:22:22:22'
$dataObject.MACDesc = 'NIC 2'

"Content of dataObject: $dataObject"
# Line 2 **********
$dataArray += $dataObject
"Content of dataArray: $dataArray"
# *** END

# ********** Problem Reporting **********
# Problem reporting
# Line 1 and Line 2
$dataArray += $dataObject
$dataArray += $dataObject
# Script ran $dataArray is empty
# OUTPUT: No error and didn't work
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=11:11:11:11:11:11; Hostname=Computer 1; IPv4=111.111.111.1111; MACDesc=NIC 1}
Content of dataArray:
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=22:22:22:22:22:22; Hostname=Computer 2; IPv4=222.222.222.222; MACDesc=NIC 2}
Content of dataArray:

# ********** Problem Reporting **********
# Minor code change in Line 1 [result in error message]
# Line 1 and Line 2
$dataArray = $dataObject
$dataArray += $dataObject
# OUTPUT: Error message
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=11:11:11:11:11:11; Hostname=Computer 1; IPv4=111.111.111.1111; MACDesc=NIC 1}
Content of dataArray: @{MAC=11:11:11:11:11:11; Hostname=Computer 1; IPv4=111.111.111.1111; MACDesc=NIC 1}
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=22:22:22:22:22:22; Hostname=Computer 2; IPv4=222.222.222.222; MACDesc=NIC 2}
Method invocation failed because [System.Management.Automation.PSObject] does not contain a method named 'op_Addition'.
At line:28 char:1
+ $dataArray += $dataObject
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (op_Addition:String) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MethodNotFound

Content of dataArray: @{MAC=22:22:22:22:22:22; Hostname=Computer 2; IPv4=222.222.222.222; MACDesc=NIC 2}

# ********** Problem Reporting **********
# Minor code change in Line 2 [result in no error message]
$dataArray += $dataObject
$dataArray = $dataObject
# OUTPUT: It ran, inconsistent output - Notice the empty $dataArray
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=11:11:11:11:11:11; Hostname=Computer 1; IPv4=111.111.111.1111; MACDesc=NIC 1}
Content of dataArray:
Content of dataObject: @{MAC=22:22:22:22:22:22; Hostname=Computer 2; IPv4=222.222.222.222; MACDesc=NIC 2}
Content of dataArray: @{MAC=22:22:22:22:22:22; Hostname=Computer 2; IPv4=222.222.222.222; MACDesc=NIC 2}

I faced with the problem when I tried to recive long array (file system entries) from remote pssession. It is obvious that Powershell has problems with it.
For reproduce it you should run next code:

$session = New-PSSession localhost

$arrayLen = 1024000
Measure-Command{
Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {
Write-Host ("Preparing test array {0} elements length..." -f $using:arrayLen)
$global:result = [Byte[]]::new($using:arrayLen)
[System.Random]::new().NextBytes($result)

}
} |% {Write-Host ("Completed in {0} sec`n" -f $_.TotalSeconds)}

Measure-Command{
Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {
Write-Host ("Transfer array ({0})" -f $using:arrayLen)
return $result
} | Out-Null
} |% {Write-Host ("Completed in {0} sec`n" -f $_.TotalSeconds)}

Measure-Command{
Invoke-Command -Session $session -ScriptBlock {
Write-Host ("Transfer same array nested in a single object")
return @{array = $result}
}
} |% {Write-Host ("Completed in {0} sec`n" -f $_.TotalSeconds)}

[Environment]

Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 5.1.16299.15
PSEdition Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion 10.0.16299.15
CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1

[Bug]

Consider this code:

[int]$end = 100
[double]$Increment = 0.1

1..$End | Foreach-Object {[double]$t += $Increment ; "$_ $t"}

I'd expect the output always to give the line number and the current total, but look what happens at lines 60 and 101:

>54 5.4
>55 5.5
>56 5.6
>57 5.7
>58 5.8
>59 5.9
>60 5.99999999999999
>61 6.09999999999999
>62 6.19999999999999
>63 6.29999999999999
>64 6.39999999999999
>65 6.49999999999999
....
96 9.59999999999998
97 9.69999999999998
98 9.79999999999998
99 9.89999999999998
100 9.99999999999998
101 10.1
102 10.2
103 10.3
104 10.4
105 10.5

This behaviour seems to repeat over larger ranges and for different values of $Increment. The lines on which the problems occur vary according to the $Increment.

A colleague can repro this in the same environment (PSVersion 5.1.16299.15). Anyone else?

Problem
------------------------------------------------------
When we run a job inside a transcript, the Verbose and the Warning streams of the jobs are not displayed in the transcript. However, we can see the in the console correctly.

Steps to reproduce
--------------------------------------------
Run the following script
Start-Transcript -Path 'C:\Logs\DemoJobsTranscriptOutput.txt' -Append | Out-Null

$VerbosePreference = "continue"
$WarningPreference = "continue"

$jobs = @()

$jobs += Start-Job -ScriptBlock {
$VerbosePreference = "continue"
$WarningPreference = "continue"
"Begin job"
Write-Verbose "Verbose!"
Write-Warning "Warning!"
"End job"
} -Name "Demo"

$jobs | Wait-Job | Out-Null

$jobs | % {
"Result for job '$($_.Name)'"
$_ | Receive-Job -Verbose
}

$jobs | Remove-Job | Out-Null

Stop-Transcript

Expected behavior
------------------------------------------------
The transcript should capture the Verbose and the Warning logs

Actual behavior
-------------------------------------------------
This is the PowerShell output.

VERBOSE: Result for job 'Demo'
Begin job
VERBOSE: Verbose!
WARNING: Warning!
End job
This is the Transcript 'C:\Logs\DemoJobsTranscriptOutput.txt'

**********************
Windows PowerShell transcript start
Start time: 20180110171727
Username: me
RunAs User: me
Machine: (Microsoft Windows NT 10.0.14393.0)
Host Application: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell_ISE.exe
Process ID: 8600
PSVersion: 5.1.14393.1884
PSEdition: Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1.14393.1884
BuildVersion: 10.0.14393.1884
CLRVersion: 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion: 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion: 2.3
SerializationVersion: 1.1.0.1
**********************
VERBOSE: Result for job 'Demo'
Begin job
End job
**********************
Windows PowerShell transcript end
End time: 20180110171727
**********************

Environment data
--------------------------------------
PSVersion 5.1.14393.1884
PSEdition Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
BuildVersion 10.0.14393.1884
CLRVersion 4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion 3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1