PowerShell 7.1 -> 5.1 inconsistency with Get-ScheduledTask

Steps to reproduce

Get-ScheduledTask

Expected behavior

I would expect the ‘state’ property to be the same across PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7.

This would mean I am returned a state of (Disabled|Ready|Running).

Actual behavior

I am returned an integer, I assume this is an enum.

Environment data

PSVersion                      7.1.0
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.1.0
OS                             Microsoft Windows 6.3.9600
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

[jborean93]

The issue here is most likely due the ScheduledTask module not being PowerShell Core compatible on that Windows build. In this case the module is loaded in an implicit remoting session that is connected to a Windows PowerShell process which is what is hosting the module. Because the ScheduledTask module isn’t loaded into the current session there is no special type data to convert the raw int value the MSFT_ScheduledTask returns.

You can see the State value for the CIM class that hosts this information is a signed integer ([int32]) so a raw WMI query will return an integer

$cimParams = @{
    ClassName = 'MSFT_ScheduledTask'
    Namespace = 'ROOT\Microsoft\Windows\TaskScheduler'
}
(Get-CimClass @cimParams).CimClassProperties |
    Where Name -eq State

Name               : State
Value              :
CimType            : SInt32
Flags              : Property, ReadOnly, NullValue
Qualifiers         : {read, ValueMap, Values}
ReferenceClassName :

Where the PowerShell magic comes in is that it has extended type data to make the data more readable

# Run this on Windows PowerShell
(Get-TypeData '*MSFT_ScheduledTask').Members.State

GetScriptBlock
--------------
[Microsoft.PowerShell.Cmdletization.GeneratedTypes.ScheduledTask.StateEnum]($this.PSBase.CimInstanceProperties['State'…

This type data is automatically applied to any type that matches the type name (caveats do apply) so on Windows PowerShell the State property as exposed by PowerShell is automatically converted to an enum when it is accessed.

Going back to the point where the ScheduledTask module is run in an implicit remoting session. The module is now loaded in the Windows PowerShell session whereas your PS Core one does not have any type data. Therefore the State will continue to be the raw Int32 value. Newer Windows builds contain an updated ScheduledTask module which now loads on PS Core and therefore contain the type data to automatically expose the enum instead.

TLDR: The raw value from Get-ScheduledTask State is an Int32 but the module has extra type data so it’s converted to an enum when accessed. PS Core doesn’t load the module normally on that older Windows build (because it’s not compatible) so the type data is not present.

[jborean93]

Just an FYI in the future the default bug report title is quite generic. It makes it easier to search for issues (especially historical ones) if the title reflects the actual bug.