Throw message not being shown - powershell

Question

I'm trying to print my own error messages using throw. Consider this example:
$computerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
$adsi = [adsi]("WinNT://$computerName")
if (!($adsi.Children.Find($userGroup, 'group')))
{
throw "User group not found."
}
If the user group is incorrect, this error message is shown:
Exception calling "Find" with "2" argument(s): The group name could not be found.
Is there a way to show my throw message, rather than the generic exception?

Answer 1

try this:
$computerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
$adsi = [adsi]("WinNT://$computerName")
try {
$adsi.Children.Find($userGroup, 'group')
}
catch{
throw "User group not found."
}

Answer 2

[adsi] has a habit of throwing terminating errors. This happens with Get-ADUser as well. This is why capturing the error in a try/catch (like in whatever's answer) is necessary.
As an alternative you can check if the group exists by querying all local groups first and see if yours exists.
$computerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME
$adsi = [adsi]("WinNT://$computerName")
$localGroups = $adsi.children | Where-Object{$_.SchemaClassName -eq "Group"}
If($userGroup -notin $localGroups.Name){
throw "Your group is in another castle."
}
or a variant
if(-not ($adsi.children | Where-Object{$_.SchemaClassName -eq "Group" -and $_.Name -eq $userGroup})){
throw "Your group is in another castle."
}
Depending on where you are continuing with this code it might be advantageous to store this information once.