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Write-Information

  • Reference
Module:
Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility

Specifies how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command.

Syntax

Write-Information
     [-MessageData] <Object>
     [[-Tags] <String[]>]
     [<CommonParameters>]

Description

The Write-Information cmdlet specifies how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command.

Windows PowerShell 5.0 introduces a new, structured information stream. You can use this stream to transmit structured data between a script and its callers or the host application. Write-Information lets you add an informational message to the stream, and specify how PowerShell handles information stream data for a command. Information streams also work for PowerShell.Streams, jobs, and scheduled tasks.

Note

The information stream does not follow the standard convention of prefixing its messages with "[Stream Name]:". This was intended for brevity and visual cleanliness.

The $InformationPreference preference variable value determines whether the message you provide to Write-Information is displayed at the expected point in a script's operation. Because the default value of this variable is SilentlyContinue, by default, informational messages are not shown. If you don't want to change the value of $InformationPreference, you can override its value by adding the InformationAction common parameter to your command. For more information, see about_Preference_Variables and about_CommonParameters.

Note

Starting in Windows PowerShell 5.0, Write-Host is a wrapper for Write-Information This allows you to use Write-Host to emit output to the information stream. This enables the capture or suppression of data written using Write-Host while preserving backwards compatibility. For more information see Write-Host

Write-Information is also a supported workflow activity in PowerShell 5.x.

Examples

Example 1: Write information for Get- results

In this example, you show an informational message, "Got your features!", after running the Get-WindowsFeature command to find all features that have a Name value that starts with 'p'. Because the $InformationPreference variable is still set to its default, SilentlyContinue, you add the InformationAction parameter to override the $InformationPreference value, and show the message. The InformationAction value is Continue, which means that your message is shown, but the script or command continues, if it is not yet finished.

Get-WindowsFeature -Name p*
Write-Information -MessageData "Got your features!" -InformationAction Continue

Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
------------                                            ----                       -------------
[ ] Print and Document Services                         Print-Services                 Available
    [ ] Print Server                                    Print-Server                   Available
    [ ] Distributed Scan Server                         Print-Scan-Server              Available
    [ ] Internet Printing                               Print-Internet                 Available
    [ ] LPD Service                                     Print-LPD-Service              Available
[ ] Peer Name Resolution Protocol                       PNRP                           Available
[X] Windows PowerShell                                  PowerShellRoot                 Installed
    [X] Windows PowerShell 5.0                          PowerShell                     Installed
    [ ] Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine                   PowerShell-V2                    Removed
    [X] Windows PowerShell ISE                          PowerShell-ISE                 Installed
Got your features!

Example 2: Write information and tag it

In this example, you use Write-Information to let users know they'll need to run another command after they're done running the current command. The example adds the tag Instructions to the informational message. After running this command, if you search the information stream for messages tagged Instructions, the message specified here would be among the results.

$message = "To filter your results for PowerShell, pipe your results to the Where-Object cmdlet."
Get-WindowsFeature -Name p*
Write-Information -MessageData $message -Tags "Instructions" -InformationAction Continue

Display Name                                            Name                       Install State
------------                                            ----                       -------------
[ ] Print and Document Services                         Print-Services                 Available
    [ ] Print Server                                    Print-Server                   Available
    [ ] Distributed Scan Server                         Print-Scan-Server              Available
    [ ] Internet Printing                               Print-Internet                 Available
    [ ] LPD Service                                     Print-LPD-Service              Available
[ ] Peer Name Resolution Protocol                       PNRP                           Available
[X] Windows PowerShell                                  PowerShellRoot                 Installed
    [X] Windows PowerShell 5.0                          PowerShell                     Installed
    [ ] Windows PowerShell 2.0 Engine                   PowerShell-V2                    Removed
    [X] Windows PowerShell ISE                          PowerShell-ISE                 Installed
To filter your results for PowerShell, pipe your results to the Where-Object cmdlet.

Example 3: Write information to a file

In this example, you redirect the information stream in the function to a Info.txt using the code 6>. When you open the Info.txt file, you see the text, "Here you go."

function Test-Info
{
    Get-Process P*
    Write-Information "Here you go"
}
Test-Info 6> Info.txt

Example 4: Pass object to write information

In this example, you can use Write-Information to write the top 10 highest CPU utilization processes from the Get-Process object output that has passes through multiple pipelines.

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending |
    Select-Object Id, ProcessName, CPU -First 10 |
        Write-Information -InformationAction Continue

@{Id=12692; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=39431.296875}
@{Id=21292; ProcessName=OUTLOOK; CPU=23991.875}
@{Id=10548; ProcessName=CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess; CPU=20546.203125}
@{Id=312848; ProcessName=Taskmgr; CPU=13173.1875}
@{Id=10848; ProcessName=SnapClient; CPU=7014.265625}
@{Id=9760; ProcessName=Receiver; CPU=6792.359375}
@{Id=12040; ProcessName=Teams; CPU=5605.578125}
@{Id=498388; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=3062.453125}
@{Id=6900; ProcessName=chrome; CPU=2546.9375}
@{Id=9044; ProcessName=explorer; CPU=2358.765625}

Parameters

-MessageData

Specifies an informational message that you want to display to users as they run a script or command. For best results, enclose the informational message in quotation marks.

Type:Object
Aliases:Msg, Message
Position:0
Default value:None
Required:True
Accept pipeline input:True
Accept wildcard characters:False

-Tags

Specifies a simple string that you can use to sort and filter messages that you have added to the information stream with Write-Information. This parameter works similarly to the Tags parameter in New-ModuleManifest.

Type:String[]
Position:1
Default value:None
Required:False
Accept pipeline input:False
Accept wildcard characters:False

Inputs

Object

Write-Information accepts piped objects to pass to the information stream.

Outputs

InformationRecord