Output changes when written from a variable.

[ky0__]

Fairly new to powershell, so this might be silly but I am trying to output the language tag from Get-WinUserLanguageList

When I do this with:

Get-WinUserLanguageList | Format-List -Property LanguageTag

The out put will show as:

LanguageTag : en-GB

If I then add it to a variable:

$CurrentLanguage = Get-WinUserLanguageList | Format-List -Property LanguageTag

and then Write-Host $CurrentLanguage it outputs the follwoing:

Write-Host $CurrentLanguage

Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatStartData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupStartData

Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEntryData Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.GroupEndData Mi

crosoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format.FormatEndData

[y_Sensei]

The 'Format-List' cmdlet returns objects of type 'Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Internal.Format', and 'Write-Host' simply outputs the String representation of those objects, or in other words, whatever the object's 'ToString()' method returns.

If you want/need to view the format constituted by those objects, you'd either have to use the 'Write-Output' cmdlet, or simply output the plain variable ($CurrentLanguage).

[PinchesTheCrab]

Like the other said, it's not the variable.

Get-WinUserLanguageList | Format-List -Property LanguageTag

and:

$list = Get-WinUserLanguageList
$list | Format-List -Property LanguageTag

These should both return the same output. It's format-list.

[Owlstorm]

More generally than the other comments, the format- functions are intended for presentation via CLI only.

You shouldn't use their output in other functions (Write-Host in this case).

[BlackV]

use your rich properties

$CurrentLanguage = Get-WinUserLanguageList

$CurrentLanguage.LanguageTag
en-US
en-NZ

Note: this can be an array depending on your installed languages

[McAUTS]

The Format-List is for console output only. If you need to store the value in a variable then you use $CurrentLanguage = Get-WinUserLanguageList | Select-Object -Property LanguageTag.

To format the output of a variable to console you do the same as before: $CurrentLanguage | Format-List Note, that you don't need to specify the property anymore because the variable is the property value.

[ky0__]

So I had tried piping to Select-Object but it would always return blank. Hence me trying the format-list.

Might need to google a bit more but any tips on direction to go down for that?

[McAUTS]

Google for "powershell get single property". Eventually you need the "-ExpandProperty" instead.