How do I add a newline to command output in PowerShell?

Question

I run the following code using PowerShell to get a list of add/remove programs from the registry:

Get-ChildItem -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall `     | ForEach-Object -Process { Write-Output $_.GetValue("DisplayName") } `     | Out-File addrem.txt 

I want the list to be separated by newlines per each program. I've tried:

Get-ChildItem -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall `     | ForEach-Object -Process { Write-Output $_.GetValue("DisplayName") `n } `     | out-file test.txt  Get-ChildItem -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall `     | ForEach-Object {$_.GetValue("DisplayName") } `     | Write-Host -Separator `n  Get-ChildItem -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall `     | ForEach-Object -Process { $_.GetValue("DisplayName") } `     | foreach($_) { echo $_ `n } 

But all result in weird formatting when output to the console, and with three square characters after each line when output to a file. I tried Format-List, Format-Table, and Format-Wide with no luck. Originally, I thought something like this would work:

Get-ChildItem -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall `     | ForEach-Object -Process { "$_.GetValue("DisplayName") `n" } 

But that just gave me an error.

Answer 1

Or, just set the output field separator (OFS) to double newlines, and then make sure you get a string when you send it to file:

$OFS = "`r`n`r`n" "$( gci -path hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall |      ForEach-Object -Process { write-output $_.GetValue('DisplayName') } )" |   out-file addrem.txt 

Beware to use the ` and not the '. On my keyboard (US-English Qwerty layout) it's located left of the 1.
(Moved here from the comments - Thanks Koen Zomers)

Answer 2

Give this a try:

PS> $nl = [Environment]::NewLine PS> gci hklm:\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\uninstall |          ForEach { $_.GetValue("DisplayName") } | Where {$_} | Sort |         Foreach {"$_$nl"} | Out-File addrem.txt -Enc ascii 

It yields the following text in my addrem.txt file:

Adobe AIR  Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX  ... 

Note: on my system, GetValue("DisplayName") returns null for some entries, so I filter those out. BTW, you were close with this:

ForEach-Object -Process { "$_.GetValue("DisplayName") `n" } 

Except that within a string, if you need to access a property of a variable, that is, "evaluate an expression", then you need to use subexpression syntax like so:

Foreach-Object -Process { "$($_.GetValue('DisplayName'))`r`n" } 

Essentially within a double quoted string PowerShell will expand variables like $_, but it won't evaluate expressions unless you put the expression within a subexpression using this syntax:

$(`<Multiple statements can go in here`>).