Catching Errors in Native EXEs (Part 1)

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When you run native console EXE commands such as robocopy.exe, ipconfig.exe, or similar commands, you can handle errors raised by these commands:

try
{
    $current = $ErrorActionPreference
    $ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
    # this will cause an EXE command to emit an error
    # (replace with any console-based EXE command)
    net.exe user nonexistentUser 2>&1
    $ErrorActionPreference = $current
}
catch
{
   Write-Host ('Error occured: ' + $_.Exception.Message)
} 

To catch an error, you need to temporarily set $ErrorActionPreference to “Stop”. In addition, you need to redirect the error channel to the output channel by adding “2>&1”.

If you do this, the error can be handled by PowerShell like any .NET error.

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