ConvertTo-CliXml

Welcome back to Wahmans Powershell blog! 👋 Today we’re diving into the ConvertTo-CliXml cmdlet — a lesser-known, but super useful PowerShell tool that can help serialize your objects in a structured and portable format.

What is ConvertTo-CliXml?

ConvertTo-CliXml is a built-in cmdlet in PowerShell that converts objects into a serialized XML format (CliXml), which can later be retrieved and reconstructed using Import-Clixml. This is especially useful when you want to save complex or custom PowerShell objects and preserve their full fidelity across sessions, systems, or scripts.

Getting Started with ConvertTo-CliXml

Let’s explore 4 practical examples, from beginner-friendly to more advanced use cases.

Example 1 – Simple Object Serialization (Beginner)

Let’s start with something simple: converting a hashtable to CliXml.

$myHash = @{ Name = 'John'; Age = 30; Active = $true }
$xml = $myHash | ConvertTo-CliXml
$xml

This will output the XML representation of the hashtable object.

Example 2 – Saving and Loading Serialized Data

A common use case is persisting an object to disk and restoring it later using CliXml.

$serviceInfo = Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq 'Running'}
$serviceInfo | Export-Clixml -Path 'running_services.xml'

# Later...
$importedInfo = Import-Clixml -Path 'running_services.xml'
$importedInfo | Format-Table

This technique is perfect for snapshotting system states in a repeatable way.

Example 3 – Secure Credential Persistence

Using CliXml lets you securely store credentials without exposing them as plain text.

$cred = Get-Credential
$cred | Export-Clixml -Path 'secure_cred.xml'

Later, retrieve it with:

$cred = Import-Clixml -Path 'secure_cred.xml'

Note: This file can only be decrypted by the same user on the same machine, ensuring security.

Example 4 – Transferring State Between Scripts or Servers

Want to serialize and send object states between servers or long-running jobs?

$jobs = Get-Job
$jobsXml = $jobs | ConvertTo-CliXml
[System.IO.File]::WriteAllText('job_state.xml', $jobsXml.OuterXml)

You can then transfer ‘job_state.xml’ to another server or script and deserialize it using:

$xmlContent = Get-Content 'job_state.xml' -Raw
$reader = [System.Xml.XmlReader]::Create([System.IO.StringReader]$xmlContent)
$deserializedJobs = [System.Management.Automation.Internal.ClixmlDeserializer]::new($reader).Deserialize()

Now you can inspect or act on the deserialized job objects!

That’s all for today! Hopefully, these examples gave you insight into the power of ConvertTo-CliXml for object serialization and state management in PowerShell.

Happy scripting, and I will see you in the next post!