Prerequisites

• Write a descriptive title.
• Make sure you are able to repro it on the latest released version
• Search the existing issues.
• Refer to the FAQ.
• Refer to Differences between Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell.

Steps to reproduce

• Windows PowerShell provides a meaningful error message in response to attempts to call P/Invoke declarations compiled via Add-Type that mistakenly reference a nonexistent DLL ("Unable to load DLL 'NoSuch.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)")

• In PowerShell Core, the following misleading / obscure error is reported instead:
  "Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'path1')"

# Try to call a function from a NONEXISTENT DLL via P/Invoke.
(Add-Type -ErrorAction Stop -NameSpace NS$PID -Name Aux -PassThru  @'
  [DllImport("NoSuch.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
  public static extern System.UInt16 Foo();
'@)::Foo()

Expected behavior

"Unable to load DLL 'NoSuch.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)"

Actual behavior

"Value cannot be null. (Parameter 'path1')"

That is, the inability to locate the referenced DLL is unexpectedly surfaced via implementation details, confusingly referring to a path1 parameter that is unrelated to the signature of the function being invoked.

Error details

Environment data

PowerShell 7.6.0-rc.1

Visuals

No response