PowerShell in Depth

Chapter 26. Custom formatting views

This chapter covers

• Changing object type names
• Creating view types
• Loading view types
• Using named views

One of the biggest features of PowerShell’s formatting system is its ability to use predefined layouts, or views, to display specific types of objects. When you run a cmdlet like Get-Process or Get-Service, the display you see by default is controlled by a set of predefined views that Microsoft provides along with PowerShell. The default display is a best guess at what you’re most likely to want to see. Those guesses don’t always work out:

PS> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_OperatingSystem SystemDirectory : C:\Windows\system32 Organization : BuildNumber : 7601 RegisteredUser : Richard SerialNumber : ...