When you want to load additional .NET assemblies to extend the types of object you can use, there are two ways of loading them: the direct .NET approach and the Add-Type cmdlet. Both examples do the same and open a MsgBox from PowerShell:
Direct .NET approach using reflection:
PS> $null = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic') PS> $date = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox('What is your birthday?') PS> $days = (New-TimeSpan -Start $date).Days PS> "You are $days days old."
Using the Add-Type cmdlet:
PS> Add-Type -AssemblyName Microsoft.VisualBasic PS> $date = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox('What is your birthday?') PS> $days = (New-TimeSpan -Start $date).Days PS> "You are $days days old."
There is a crucial difference between these two methods, though. When you load an assembly using reflection, you load whatever version of that assembly exists on your machine. With Add-Type, the assembly version is hard-coded to the latest assembly.
