Using -AsPlainText parameter with PowerShell 5.1 fails

[jrbilodeau]

I tried using your module with PowerShell 5.1 on Windows 10, but whenever I use the parameter -AsPlainText it fails with the following error.

ConvertFrom-SecureString : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name 'AsPlainText'.
At C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PSPasswordGenerator\3.1.0\src\PSPasswordGenerator.psm1:159 char:41
+         Return (ConvertFrom-SecureString $ret -AsPlainText)
+                                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [ConvertFrom-SecureString], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ConvertFromSecureStringCommand

I looked up ConvertFrom-SecureString on Microsoft's site an it appears that -AsPlainText was not an option in PowerShell 5.1 but is in PowerShell 7 +

I wonder if it would be possible to detect the if a version of PowerShell less than 7 is being used and if so omit the -AsPlainText parameter, like this. I did a quick test and it seemed to work with PowerShell 5.1

If ($AsPlainText) {
	$result = If ($PSVersionTable.PSVersion.Major -ge 7){
		ConvertFrom-SecureString $ret -AsPlainText
	}
	Else {
		[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto(
				[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($ret)
			)
	}
	
	Return ($result)
} Else {
	Return $ret
}

[rhymeswithmogul]

Hey, that's a great idea! I don't test it well enough on that old version. I’ll see if I can fix this over the weekend.

[rhymeswithmogul]

I've committed a change that fixes this behavior. Instead of doing a version check like you suggested, I checked to see if ConvertFrom-SecureString has a parameter called -AsPlainText, and uses it if it exists. It works on PowerShell 7.4, but I won't be able to test it on Windows PowerShell 5.1 until tomorrow. Let me know if you can download and test it before then.