How can I display a 'naked' error message in PowerShell without an accompanying stacktrace?

Question

How can I write to standard error from PowerShell, or trap errors such that:

• An error message is displayed as an error (truly writing to standard error so that Tea

Answer 1

Based on suneg's answer I wrote the following functions to allow you to effortlessly swap Write-Error with a custom function and back. I also added a check if user is invoking write-error from PowerShell ISE

# Override the built-in cmdlet with a custom version
function New-ErrorFunc {
        function Dyn($message){
            param($message,$ErrorAction)
            if($psISE){
                $Host.UI.WriteErrorLine($message)
            }
            else{
            [Console]::ForegroundColor = 'red'
            [Console]::Error.WriteLine($message)
            [Console]::ResetColor()
            }
           if($ErrorAction -eq 'Stop'){
           Break
           }
        }

    return ${function:Dyn}
}
function Set-ErrorFunc(){
    param([bool]$custom=$true)
    if($custom){
    $dynfex= New-ErrorFunc
    Invoke-Expression -Command "function script:Write-Error{ $dynfex }"
    }
    else {
        $custom= Get-Command Write-Error | Where-Object {$_.CommandType -eq 'Function'} 
        if($custom){ Remove-Item function:Write-Error }
   }
}

#User our Custom Error Function
Set-ErrorFunc 
# Pretty-print "Something is wrong" on stderr (in red).
Write-Error "Something is wrong"

# Setting things back to normal 
Set-ErrorFunc -custom $false
# Print the standard bloated Powershell errors
Write-Error "Back to normal errors"