PowerShell File Version Information

Compiled files in your Windows computer, such as executables and libraries (or files with a .exe and .dll suffix in their names), can contain some additional information stored in a FileVersion structure. You can see these properties in Explorer's Properties dialog, Details tab.

Before releasing a Windows-based product, I wanted to check that the Copyright and Product Version fields in all compiled files were correctly updated. We always increment the number in Product Version and if the product was released in the start of the year, we also update the Copyright field. You can use Windows Explorer to view these properties in several files at once (just select all relevant files and show the Properties dialog), but if a file had a different value from the others, the Properties / Details tab shows the unhelpful multiple values text. Which file has a value different from the others? It isn't that hard to check each field individually but why not automate the test?

You can use the following PowerShell one-liner to list the Copyright field of all compiled files:

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

To test on the Windows PowerShell folder:

gpowershell.exe Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
powershell.exe  © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
pwrshmsg.dll    © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
pwrshsip.dll    © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The first command get-childitem * -include *.dll,*.exe retrieves a list of files in the current directory that have a *.dll or *.exe suffix. The Get-ChildItem cmdlet has a -filter option but it only accepts one pattern.

The second command outputs the filename and the Copyright information of each file using the format (-f) operator. We use the .Net [System.Diagnostics.FileVersionInfo]::GetVersionInfo() method to obtain the file's LegalCopyright (or Copyright) field.

To check Product Version field, use .ProductVersion instead of .LegalCopyright. If you are interested in other fields, check MSDN for a complete list of field returned by GetVersionInfo.