Enumerate file properties in PowerShell

I have seen bits of this in other questions, but I am looking for a generic way to write a function that will take a file, and list its properties in such a way that they can be used. I am aware of the function called Get-ItemProperty but it does not list the properties that I am looking for (for example, given a .avi file, it will not tell me the length, frame width, etc).

Am I using the function wrong (all I am doing is: Get-ItemProperty file) or do I have to do this a different way?

I want to be able to say something like $a += $file.Length, or something like that for arbitrary properties.

Sounds like you are looking for extended file attributes. These are not stored in System.IO.FileInfo.

One way is to use the Shell.Application COM object. Here is some example code:

http://web.archive.org/web/20160201231836/http://powershell.com/cs/blogs/tobias/archive/2011/01/07/organizing-videos-and-music.aspx

Say you had a video file: C:\video.wmv

$path = 'C:\video.wmv'
$shell = New-Object -COMObject Shell.Application
$folder = Split-Path $path
$file = Split-Path $path -Leaf
$shellfolder = $shell.Namespace($folder)
$shellfile = $shellfolder.ParseName($file)

You'll need to know what the ID of the extended attribute is. This will show you all of the ID's:

0..287 | Foreach-Object { '{0} = {1}' -f $_, $shellfolder.GetDetailsOf($null, $_) }

Once you find the one you want you can access it like this:

$shellfolder.GetDetailsOf($shellfile, 216)