Some drivers throw an exception when fetched with Get-Service, but still return the object anyway

Steps to reproduce

Run in elevated PowerShell prompt:

Get-Service -Name msquic

If not run in an elevated prompt, no object is returned in PS6/7, and only the exception is shown. In PS5, the object is returned and there is no exception.

Expected behavior

From PowerShell 5:

Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  MsQuic             msquic

Actual behavior

From PowerShell 6.2 and 7:

get-service : Service 'MsQuic (MsQuic)' cannot be queried due to the following error:
At line:1 char:1
+ get-service -name msquic
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController:ServiceController) [Get-Service], ServiceCommandException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CouldNotGetServiceInfo,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetServiceCommand


Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  MsQuic             MsQuic

Environment data

PowerShell 6.2:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.2.1
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.2.1
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.18956
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

PowerShell 7:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      7.0.0-preview.1
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    7.0.0-preview.1
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.18956
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

[mniederw]

I got the same problem, so it is still not fixed. Here an actualized description:

Step to reproduce (no difference if elevated or not): Get-Service McpManagementService; # also for: Get-Service *;

Actual behaviour: On Powershell 5.x : OK, it shows the service properties without an error. On Powershell 7.3.2 on Win10Pro: It shows the service properties BUT it first output the line in red (with no more info): "Get-Service: Service ‘McpManagementService (McpManagementService)’ cannot be queried due to the following error: " The problem arises if this is used in a script with trapping enabled: $ErrorActionPreference="Stop"; Get-Service McpManagementService; then it throws and ends the script.

Reason: Usually for all services a description is provided but for this specific service the description property is is not correctly stored. For example if service.msc is called then the entry McpManagementService is shown with the description “<Failed to read description, Error Code: 15100>”. The reason is that the registry key items:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\McpManagementService:Description 
    = @%SystemRoot%\system32\McpManagementService.dll,-101
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\McpManagementService:DisplayName 
    = @%SystemRoot%\system32\McpManagementService.dll,-100

contains probably a reference to a string in a dll which not exists. As a workaround1 the two registry key items can be corrected to the string “Universal Print Management Service”, but in my opinion the owner of the service and the dll (microsoft) should provide here fix for this. Workaround2: Use $ErrorActionPreference="Stop"; Get-Service -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue McpManagementService; Ignoring error is not best practice and should regular not be nessessary.

Expected behaviour: It should NOT THROW, it should just display “<Failed to read description, Error Code: 15100>” or a similar error-message for the description as service.msc or PS 5 does. The concept of Get-Service should be to provide the service properties and not to guarantee that each creator of a service is providing a proper description!

[daxian-dbw]

get-service : Service ‘MsQuic (MsQuic)’ cannot be queried due to the following error: At line:1 char:1

At least the error message needs to be updated.