Sort-Object not sorting correctly due to encoding issue

So I have a solution to this issue but it is more hacking then I would like. You have French OSes in your environment. This is obvious based on the spelling of some of your systems. Depending on what you are doing with this data you are going to have to massage this anyway if you need to group by OS since the spelling is different between languages.

Looked at the Ansi codes the space you are seeing on the offending item is 160 which is higher than the natural space which is 32.

That being said you could just Sort on a custom property to get the result you are looking for.

| Sort-Object {$_ -replace [char]160," "}

Even if the character displayed correctly on the screen it would not be sorted how you want. I think this solution is required given the data presented. I don't have any experience with multiple language environment to provide and other ideas just yet.

Interesting question, sorting strings with numbers is always tricky because the ASCII/ordinal values will have "1" less then "7", so it will compare "Windows 10" as less than "Windows 7".

Searching for "PowerShell custom sorting" led me to an answer on this page: custom sorting in powershell.

I used that approach as a basis to write the following solution.

Code

$items = @(
'Windows Embedded Standard',
'Windows 7 Enterprise',
'Windows XP Professional',
'Windows Server 2003',
'Windows 7 Entreprise',
'',
'Windows 7 Professionnel',
'Windows 7 Professional',
'Windows 10 Enterprise',
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard',
'Windows Server 2012 Standard',
'Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard',
'unknown',
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise')

# Define our search criteria
# match non-digits
$part1 = { if ($_ -match '(\D+)') { $matches[1] } }
# after part 1, match digits and cast to int so sorting works by number/value
$part2 = { if ($_ -match '\D+(\d+)') { [int]$matches[1] } }
# rest of string after part 2
$part3 = { if ($_ -match '\D+\d+(.*)') { $matches[1] } }

Write-Output "`nTest of our parts and how they parse a string."
# write values out surrounded by single quotes so we see exactly what is returned
'Windows 10 Enterprise' | % $part1 | % {Write-Output $("'" + $_ + "'")}
'Windows 10 Enterprise' | % $part2 | % {Write-Output $("'" + $_ + "'")}
'Windows 10 Enterprise' | % $part3 | % {Write-Output $("'" + $_ + "'")}

Write-Output "`nSorted by string (where 1 is less than 7, even if number is 10"
$items | Sort-Object | % {Write-Output $("'" + $_ + "'")}

Write-Output "`nSorted using our custom parsing rules!!!"
# write values out surrounded by single quotes so we see exactly what is returned
$items | Sort-Object $part1, $part2, $part3 | % {Write-Output $("'" + $_ + "'")}

Output:

Test of our parts and how they parse a string.
'Windows '
'10'
' Enterprise'

Sorted by string (where 1 is less than 7, even if number is 10
''
'unknown'
'Windows 10 Enterprise'
'Windows 7 Enterprise'
'Windows 7 Entreprise'
'Windows 7 Professional'
'Windows 7 Professionnel'
'Windows Embedded Standard'
'Windows Server 2003'
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise'
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard'
'Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard'
'Windows Server 2012 Standard'
'Windows XP Professional'

Sorted using our custom parsing rules!!!
''
'unknown'
'Windows 7 Enterprise'
'Windows 7 Entreprise'
'Windows 7 Professional'
'Windows 7 Professionnel'
'Windows 10 Enterprise'
'Windows Embedded Standard'
'Windows Server 2003'
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise'
'Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard'
'Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard'
'Windows Server 2012 Standard'
'Windows XP Professional'

-Properties parameter doesn't show only specified properties, but rather adds them to the standard set. So running Get-ADComputer -Filter "name -like '*'" -Properties OperatingSystem I don't get only OperatingSystem property as a result, but all of these: DistinguishedName, DNSHostName, Enabled, Name, ObjectClass, ObjectGUID, OperatingSystem, SamAccountName, SID, UserPrincipalName.

Now when you run something like this: Get-ADComputer -Filter "name -like '*'" -Properties OperatingSystem | sort | select OperatingSystem It means you sorted by DistinguishedName and then selected OperatingSystem.

Use | Sort-Object OperatingSystem and you'll be fine.