On PowerShell 5.1, this links to http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh847897(v=wps.630).aspx, which redirects to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/4.0/microsoft.powershell.core/providers/FileSystem-Provider/Get-ChildItem-for-Filesystem, which is a 404 page.

At least three issues with this:

1) The URL above is specific for PS 4.0, but I'm on 5.1
2) The resultant page is a 404 error. Changing the initial URL to http://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh847897.aspx redirects to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/5.1/microsoft.powershell.core/providers/FileSystem-Provider/Get-ChildItem-for-Filesystem, but,
3) If you change the URL from 4.0 to 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, or 5.1, you'll still get the 404 error. If you change that number to 3.0, you get redirected to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/providers/filesystem-provider/get-childitem-for-filesystem?view=powershell-5.1&viewFallbackFrom=powershell-Microsoft.PowerShell.Core
4) There's two different kinds of Get-ChildItem online help: the "Get-ChildItem for FileSystem" link above, and the "Get-ChildItem" help page used in PowerShell 6.0 (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/Get-ChildItem). Which would be preferable here? To which page should the redirect point?

Problem description and example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45021674/how-do-you-specify-both-static-and-dynamic-positional-parameters-in-powershell

1) It is not clear that the position attribute is relative to other parameters of the same type, and that static parameters always come before dynamic parameters.
2) If you run get-help (full) on the function described in the link it will show the literal position assignment, not their position as PowerShell expects them (i.e. the static parameter is listed as position 3, when it is actually position 0)
3) Tabbing through the options list (using ISE or PowerShell) behaves according to the literal position assignment, not their position as PowerShell expects them (i.e. if one types "Test-Validate " they are presented with the dynamically populated list for the first dynamic parameter, and then the second, followed by the third. When if PowerShell actually expects the static parameter before the dynamic parameters then Intellisense should suggest the correct lists.

At some point in the 5.0 time period, Update-Help installed About topic files in the en-US directory for the PSWorkflow module with .txt (not .help.txt) file name extensions.

e.g. about_Foreach-Parallel.txt

Later, this was fixed and Update-Help installed the same help files in the same directory with the (correct) ".help.txt" file name extension.

e.g. about_Foreach-Parallel.help.txt

Now, the PSWorkflow\en-US directory has 9 pairs of files that are identical except for the file name extension.

aboutActivityCommonParameters.help.txt
aboutActivityCommonParameters.txt
aboutCheckpoint-Workflow.help.txt
aboutCheckpoint-Workflow.txt
aboutForeach-Parallel.help.txt
aboutForeach-Parallel.txt
aboutInlineScript.help.txt
aboutInlineScript.txt
aboutParallel.help.txt
aboutParallel.txt
aboutSequence.help.txt
aboutSequence.txt
aboutSuspend-Workflow.help.txt
aboutSuspend-Workflow.txt
aboutWorkflowCommonParameters.help.txt
aboutWorkflowCommonParameters.txt
aboutWorkflows.help.txt
aboutWorkflows.txt

Get-Help should ignore the .txt files (must have changed in 4.0), but it does not. Instead, it finds both .txt and .help.txt. So, when you run Get-Help, instead of displaying help for the topic, it lists the duplicate base names.

PS C:\ps-test> Get-Help about_Foreach-Parallel

Name Category Module Synopsis

aboutForEach-Parallel HelpFile Describes the ForEach
aboutForeach-Parallel HelpFile Describes the ForEach

I'm not sure why Get-Help is recognizing About.txt files.

But, we had a similar problem in a module when we shipped a file with corrected capitalization in the base name.

aboutFileName.help.txt
aboutfilename.help.txt

We might want to tweak Get-Help so that when it detects an exact duplicate base name, it displays the content in the newest file.

Also, in modules, Get-Help should display the help only for the version of the module that it's processing. That would allow module authors to update help topic names without causing unintended duplicates.

Votes from Connect: 391

Original Date Submitted: 5/21/2015 12:20:32 AM

Description:
Contact Information
Handle: June Blender
Site Name: PowerShell
Feedback ID: 1351032

Problem Description:
PowerShell users often read .NET reference pages in MSDN. It's all but required, because Get-Help doesn't describe object members. However, in the Examples section of .NET reference pages, there are no PowerShell examples; not even a PowerShell tab.

MSDN says they cannot demonstrate a demand for PowerShell examples. I'd like to use this feature request to demonstrate the demand.

Product Studio item created by Connect Synchronizer due to creation of feedback ID 1351032 (http://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=1351032).

Repro Steps:

Internal BugId: 14500

Votes from Connect: 8

Original Date Submitted: 8/22/2014 11:58:54 PM

Description:
Contact Information
Handle: Aaron Jensen
Site Name: PowerShell
Feedback ID: 952833

Frequency: Always Happens
Regression: Yes, this happens in all previous versions

Problem Description:
Currently, when using comment-based help, you're limited to one line of code for an example. This is extremely limiting, especially when trying to document DSC resources, since they span multiple lines by default. Also, some examples would be more useful with some extra lines. The current alternative is to use XML-based help, but the MAML schema is extremely verbose and complicated.

What I'd like to see is everything until the first empty line is treated as a code sample, e.g.

.EXAMPLE

User CreateUser

{

    Username = 'fubar';

    Credential = $credential;

}


Demonstrates the minimum amount of code needed to create a user with the `User` resource.

Would render as:

-------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------

PS C:\> User CreateUser

{

    Username = 'fubar';

    Credential = $credential;

}


Demonstrates the minimum amount of code needed to create a user with the `User` resource.

Other ideas:

• Prefix on each line of the example code


• Use the ` at the end of each line to mean "continue the example code onto the next line".

Product Studio item created by Connect Synchronizer due to creation of feedback ID 952833 (http://connect.microsoft.com/PowerShell/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=952833).

Repro Steps:
Expected Results:

Internal BugId: 8968

Recently the new "docs"" site was implemented on MS. The old TechNet and MSDN PowerSHell help documentation is now buried and hard to access. The new help is no longer linked to any help for an CmdLet. We get "404" for all attempts.

Also the new doc style is very pretty but not very useful. Same for the new Net class browser. On both the documentation is incomplete and has many errors compared to the original documentation.

Please address this as using the documentation has become a nightmare. MS needs to go back to managing this directly and try and undo the mess that has been created.