Get file version in PowerShell

Question

Nowadays you can get the FileVersionInfo from Get-Item or Get-ChildItem, but it will show the original FileVersion from the shipped product, and not the updated version. For instance:

(Get-Item C:\Windows\System32\Lsasrv.dll).VersionInfo.FileVersion

Interestingly, you can get the updated (patched) ProductVersion by using this:

(Get-Command C:\Windows\System32\Lsasrv.dll).Version

The distinction I'm making between "original" and "patched" is basically due to the way the FileVersion is calculated (see the docs here). Basically ever since Vista, the Windows API GetFileVersionInfo is querying part of the version information from the language neutral file (exe/dll) and the non-fixed part from a language-specific mui file (which isn't updated every time the files change).

So with a file like lsasrv (which got replaced due to security problems in SSL/TLS/RDS in November 2014) the versions reported by these two commands (at least for a while after that date) were different, and the second one is the more "correct" version.

However, although it's correct in LSASrv, it's possible for the ProductVersion and FileVersion to be different (it's common, in fact). So the only way to get the updated Fileversion straight from the assembly file is to build it up yourself from the parts, something like this:

Get-Item C:\Windows\System32\Lsasrv.dll | ft FileName, File*Part

Or by pulling the data from this:

[System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($this.FullName)

You can easily add this to all FileInfo objects by updating the TypeData in PowerShell:

Update-TypeData -TypeName System.IO.FileInfo -MemberName FileVersion -MemberType ScriptProperty -Value {
   [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($this.FullName) | % {
      [Version](($_.FileMajorPart, $_.FileMinorPart, $_.FileBuildPart, $_.FilePrivatePart)-join".") 
   }
}

Now every time you do Get-ChildItem or Get-Item you'll have a FileVersion property that shows the updated FileVersion ...

Since PowerShell can call .NET classes, you could do the following:

[System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo("somefilepath").FileVersion

Or as noted here on a list of files:

get-childitem * -include *.dll,*.exe | foreach-object { "{0}`t{1}" -f $_.Name, [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo($_).FileVersion }

Or even nicer as a script: https://jtruher3.wordpress.com/2006/05/14/powershell-and-file-version-information/

'dir' is an alias for Get-ChildItem which will return back a System.IO.FileInfo class when you're calling it from the filesystem which has VersionInfo as a property. So ...

To get the version info of a single file do this:

PS C:\Windows> (dir .\write.exe).VersionInfo | fl


OriginalFilename : write
FileDescription  : Windows Write
ProductName      : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Comments         :
CompanyName      : Microsoft Corporation
FileName         : C:\Windows\write.exe
FileVersion      : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
ProductVersion   : 6.1.7600.16385
IsDebug          : False
IsPatched        : False
IsPreRelease     : False
IsPrivateBuild   : False
IsSpecialBuild   : False
Language         : English (United States)
LegalCopyright   : © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
LegalTrademarks  :
PrivateBuild     :
SpecialBuild     :

For multiple files this:

PS C:\Windows> dir *.exe | %{ $_.VersionInfo }

ProductVersion   FileVersion      FileName
--------------   -----------      --------
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\bfsvc.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\explorer.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\fveupdate.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\HelpPane.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\hh.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\notepad.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\regedit.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\splwow64.exe
1,7,0,0          1,7,0,0          C:\Windows\twunk_16.exe
1,7,1,0          1,7,1,0          C:\Windows\twunk_32.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\winhlp32.exe
6.1.7600.16385   6.1.7600.1638... C:\Windows\write.exe

I realise this has already been answered, but if anyone's interested in typing fewer characters, I believe this is the shortest way of writing this in PS v3+:

ls application.exe | % versioninfo

• ls is an alias for Get-ChildItem
• % is an alias for ForEach-Object
• versioninfo here is a shorthand way of writing {$_.VersionInfo}

The benefit of using ls in this way is that you can easily adapt it to look for a given file within subfolders. For example, the following command will return version info for all files called application.exe within subfolders:

ls application.exe -r | % versioninfo

• -r is an alias for -Recurse

You can further refine this by adding -ea silentlycontinue to ignore things like permission errors in folders you can't search:

ls application.exe -r -ea silentlycontinue | % versioninfo

• -ea is an alias for -ErrorAction

Finally, if you are getting ellipses (...) in your results, you can append | fl to return the information in a different format. This returns much more detail, although formatted in a list, rather that on one line per result:

ls application.exe -r -ea silentlycontinue | % versioninfo | fl

• fl is an alias for Format-List

I realise this is very similar to xcud's reply in that ls and dir are both aliases for Get-ChildItem. But I'm hoping my "shortest" method will help someone.

The final example could be written in long-hand in the following way:

Get-ChildItem -Filter application.exe -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | ForEach-Object {$_.VersionInfo} | Format-List

... but I think my way is cooler and, for some, easier to remember. (But mostly cooler).

I prefer to install the PowerShell Community Extensions and just use the Get-FileVersionInfo function that it provides.

Like so:

Get-FileVersionInfo MyAssembly.dll

with output like:

ProductVersion   FileVersion      FileName
--------------   -----------      --------
1.0.2907.18095   1.0.2907.18095   C:\Path\To\MyAssembly.dll

I've used it against an entire directory of assemblies with great success.