Add -Encoding Utf8Bom and -Encoding Utf8NoBom values to the Windows Out-File cmdlet

Your company is in a transition phase from Windows PowerShell to PowerShell Core. You have a lot of scripts that use the Out-File cmdlet to create text files. Most of the Out-File commands do not have any encoding specified, so they use the default encoding. In Windows PowerShell, the default encoding is Unicode (UTF-16LE), while in PowerShell Core, the default encoding is Utf8NoBom (UTF-8 without BOM). Besides, the Utf8 encoding has changed from Utf8Bom (UTF-8 with BOM) in Windows PowerShell to Utf8 (UTF-8 without BOM) in PowerShell Core.

You want the same behavior in both Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core preferably using UTF-8 encoding. Therefore, you want to use -Encoding Utf8NoBom in all Out-File commands. However, Windows PowerShell does not support Utf8NoBom as a value for the -Encoding parameter of the Out-File cmdlet:

PS C:\> Get-Command Out-File CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Cmdlet Out-File 3.1.0.0 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility PS C:\> Out-File Test.txt -InputObject 'Hello World' -Encoding utf8NoBOM -NoNewLine Out-File : Cannot validate argument on parameter 'Encoding'. The argument "utf8NoBOM" does not belong to the set "unknown,string,unicode,bigendianunicode,utf8,utf7,utf32,ascii,default,oem" specified by the ValidateSet attribute. Supply an argument that is in the set and then try the command again. At line:1 char:56 + ... -File Test.txt -InputObject 'Hello World' -Encoding utf8NoBOM -NoNewL ... + ~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Out-File], ParameterBindingValidationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.OutFileCommand

This module adds and implements the Utf8NoBom and Utf8Bom values to the -Encoding parameter of the Out-File cmdlet in Windows PowerShell.

Install-Module WindowsOutFilePatch -AllowClobber

After the patch is installation Out-File version should be than 3.2.0.0 or higher for Windows PowerShell and the new encoding values should be available.

CommandType Name Version Source ----------- ---- ------- ------ Function Out-File 3.2.0.1 WindowsOutFilePatch

For more details see the helpful answers from mklement0 on Stack Overflow:

• Write-Output with no BOM
• How to make Out-File use UTF8 without BOM in Windows PowerShell