How to Generate GUID in PowerShell

Convert a String to a UUID in PowerShell

Sometimes a UUID arrives as plain text — from a config file, an API response, or user input — and you need it back as a proper [guid] object. PowerShell gives you three ways to do this, each with a different tradeoff for handling invalid input. For entropy, random values come from the getrandom crate and map to a 128-bit type, as the rust uuid walkthrough for Cargo projects demonstrates.

$uuidString = "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"

# Simple cast - throws if the string is invalid
$guid = [guid]$uuidString

# [guid]::Parse() - same behavior, explicit method call
$guid = [guid]::Parse($uuidString)

# [guid]::TryParse() - safe for untrusted input, returns $true/$false
$result = [guid]::Empty
if ([guid]::TryParse($uuidString, [ref]$result)) {
    Write-Host "Valid UUID: $result"
} else {
    Write-Host "Invalid UUID string"
}

Explanation

• [guid]$uuidString casts the string directly to a [guid] object — the shortest syntax, but it throws an exception if the string isn't a valid UUID.
• [guid]::Parse($uuidString) behaves identically to the cast but reads more explicitly as a parse operation in longer scripts.
• [guid]::TryParse() never throws — it returns a boolean and writes the parsed value into the [ref] parameter, making it the safer choice when validating input you don't control.
• All three methods accept UUIDs with or without surrounding braces or hyphens, matching every format .NET's System.Guid parser understands.