Unexpected token '-property' in expression or statement

Question

Hi everyone I am trying to fetch the version of Microsoft Visual Studio components from powershell I tried "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog_productDisplayVersion command But its working only on 'command Prompt'

I ran this command, "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog_productDisplayVersion

output: At line:1 char:72

• ... x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog ...

•                                                     ~~~~~~~~~
  

Unexpected token '-property' in expression or statement. At line:1 char:82

• ... Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog_productDisplayVersion

•                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

Unexpected token 'catalog_productDisplayVersion' in expression or statement. + CategoryInfo : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken

Answer 1

Prefix the command with the PowerShell "Call Operator", which is an ampersand:

& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\Installer\vswhere.exe" -property catalog_productDisplayVersion

It prevents PowerShell from trying to parse the string.