Format-Table behaviour in 5.1

Prior to 5.1 (or maybe earlier), when results containing objects were displayed, the name of the field was displayed - e.g. VerifiedDomains in the example below.

>$adtd=Get-AzureADTenantDetail ; $adtd

ObjectId                             DisplayName            VerifiedDomains
--------                             -----------            ---------------
85b5ff1e-0402-400c-9e3c-0f9e965325d1 Coho Vineyard & Winery {class VerifiedDomain {...

Now however, FT now ‘simplifies’ the name, e.g. VerifiedDomain as shown below

>$adtd=Get-AzureADTenantDetail ; $adtd

ObjectId                             DisplayName         VerifiedDomain
--------                             -----------         --------------
a34d9988-c5e2-4aff-86f5-54a1b18c68bd Contoso M365x295334 M365x295334.onmicrosoft.com

This renders simple display of objects - e.g.

>$adtd
useless for exploratory scripting - the object returned doesn’t have a VerifiedDomain field, the field is VerifiedDomains.

Is there a workaround or setting to revert to the older behaviour? - currently I’m doing

>$adtd | fl
or
>$adtd | gm
to see the actual fields

Thanks for any guidance

There are some tricks about the formatting system. This isn’t a ‘behavior change,’ per se - it’s how the thing works.

If it isn’t given a predefined formatting view (from a .ps1xml file), it uses property names (they’re technically not “fields”). If it is given a formatting view, then it uses whatever’s defined in that view. That’s why you see column. headers in Get-EventLog output, for example, which aren’t property names.

So at some point you wound up with a formatting view for that object type, and PowerShell is displaying it. Either that, or you had one before, and a module update or something -changed- the formatting view to what you see now. Get-Member is the One True Way to see the actual property names; tables are meant as a view, not as a canonical source of programming information. Much like in a report, tables may “prettify” things. And it happens on a lot of objects you may just have never noticed.

Thanks - it’s the first time I’ve noticed it with the AzureAD cmdlets, so there probably has been a change in the AzureAD module formatting view - Get-Member it is then.