Issue
Why does the $PSVersionTable.BuildVersion output :
PS C:\> $PSVersionTable.BuildVersion
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
10 0 19041 2673
PS C:\>
differs from that of [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version ? :
PS C:\> [System.Environment]::OSVersion.Version
Major Minor Build Revision
----- ----- ----- --------
10 0 19045 0
PS C:\>
Which one is more reliable ?
Solution
I did a bit of digging, and the BuildVersion entry in $PSVersionTable in Windows PowerShell 5.1 comes from the System.Management.Automation.dll – the assembly containing all of PowerShell’s language and engine features.
In other words: it’s the assembly version, not the Operating System version that’s reflected in $PSVersionTable['BuildVersion'] – and they might not be aligned since the assembly may have been replaced by a security update outside the lifecycle updates to the OS itself and vice-versa.
You can discover the assembly version directly like this:
$SMAVersionInfo = Get-ItemPropertyValue -LiteralPath ([psobject].Assembly.Location) -Name VersionInfo
$SMAProductVersion = [version]$SMAVersionInfo.ProductVersion
$SMAProductVersion should now have the exact same value as $PSVersionTable['BuildVersion']
Answered By – Mathias R. Jessen
This Answer collected from stackoverflow, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5 , cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0