SystemDefaultCharSize corresponds to the size (in bytes) of a System.Char on the system (2 for Unicode, 1 for ASCII systems). SystemMaxDBCSCharSize corresponds to the maximum size of the double byte character set (DBCS) for the current OS. write-host "SystemDefaultCharSize: $([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SystemDefaultCharSize)" write-host "SystemMaxDBCSCharSize: $([System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SystemMaxDBCSCharSize)"