Get-FileMetaData - Remove Unicode Characters from Output



I was looking for a way to read image file Metadata, and after some research, I came across this article on Microsoft's website. Use PowerShell to Find Metadata from Photograph Files«. However, there was one issue with this code.
It was no longer available to download on their website.
I did a quick Google Search and found this code. Get-FileMetaData« which worked liked a charm.
(I have submitted my fix to the link above so the developer can add it to the existing file, but I will also add it here.)
After installing the Module and importing it into Powershell, I ran it against one of my images. It displayed all the Metadata that you would need, except it had these strange characters around the output.

Steps to import and use this Module.

Step 1: Open your favorite Text Editor up as [Administrator].
Step 2: Copy the Code in [Section 2a] below and paste it into your Editor.
Step 3: Save the file as Get-FileMetaData.psm1 to the following locations with the folder name being the same as the filename Get-FileMetaData.
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\Get-FileMetaData\Get-FileMetaData.psm1
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Modules\Get-FileMetaData\Get-FileMetaData.psm1
The file and folder names must be identical for Powershell to recognize them.



[Section 2a].
# based on https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Get-FileMetaData-3a7ddea7 function Get-FileMetaData { <# .SYNOPSIS Get-FileMetaData returns metadata information about a single file. .DESCRIPTION This function will return all Metadata information about a specific file. It can be used to access the information stored in the filesystem. .EXAMPLE Get-FileMetaData -File "c:\temp\image.jpg" Get information about an image file. .EXAMPLE Get-FileMetaData -File "c:\temp\image.jpg" | Select Dimensions Show the dimensions of the image. .EXAMPLE Get-ChildItem -Path .\ -Filter *.exe | foreach {Get-FileMetaData -File $_.Name | Select Name,"File version"} Show the file version of all binary files in the current folder. #> param([Parameter(Mandatory=$True)][string]$File = $(throw "Parameter -File is required.")) if(!(Test-Path -Path $File)) { throw "File does not exist right now System32: $File" Exit 1 } $tmp = Get-ChildItem $File $pathname = $tmp.DirectoryName $filename = $tmp.Name $hash = @{} try{ $shellobj = New-Object -ComObject Shell.Application $folderobj = $shellobj.namespace($pathname) $fileobj = $folderobj.parsename($filename) for($i=0; $i -le 294; $i++) { $name = $folderobj.getDetailsOf($null, $i); if($name){ $value = $folderobj.getDetailsOf($fileobj, $i); if($value){ #$hash[$($name)] = $($value) #Added on Apr 5, 2025, 7:50 AM EDT by Wayne Barron (carrzkiss) $hash[$($name)] = $($value) -replace "\u200E","" -replace "\u200F","" } } } }finally{ if($shellobj){ [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject([System.__ComObject]$shellobj) | out-null } } return New-Object PSObject -Property $hash } Export-ModuleMember -Function Get-FileMetadata
Video lesson on using the module.
Importing and what to do.