error handling - How to handle failed variable assignments in powershell?

Question

This question already has answers here:

Answer 1

What your Get-ItemProperty call emits is a non-terminating error, whereas try / catch only catches terminating errors.

• Non-terminating errors are far more common that terminating ones.

Use common parameter -ErrorAction Stop to promote (the first) non-terminating error generated by a cmdlet to a terminating one that try / catch handles.

You can generally achieve the same effect by setting preference variable
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop' beforehand, but note that doing so has no effect on calls to external programs and on functions implemented in modules.

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See also:

• The about_Try_Catch_Finally help topic.

• A description of the fundamental error types in the context of guidance for command authors on when to emit a terminating vs. a non-terminating error: this answer.

• A comprehensive overview of PowerShell's surprisingly complex error handling: this GitHub docs issue.