When a new version of PowerShell comes along, it’s always interesting to see whether or not winget can field that update correctly. This time around — with version 7.4.0 — it reports a “different install technology” as you can see in the lead-in graphic. When the PowerShell install method changes, winget won’t handle the update without an uninstall/reinstall maneuver. So I CTRL-clicked the link shown above the WT pane (from the GitHub link that’s helpfully provided) and used the MSI file to update PowerShell instead.

When PowerShell Install Method Changes, Use GitHub

That Microsoft Installer File is under 65MB in size. On my test PC, that takes less than 10 seconds to download. That opens the “SuperHero” PS installer (see next screencap), after which install takes half-a-dozen mouse-clicks to configure as I like it. Another minute or so, and the job is done. MS is doing better at getting new versions of PowerShell to circulate. I like it!

The only time you actually see the PS superhero avatar is when the installer runs.

Watching Out for Certain Winget Shenanigans

So, I’m learning to be wary of three specific installs when using winget inside Windows Terminal and PowerShell — namely:

• winget itself: if the tool doing the updating gets updated, interesting things can — and do — sometimes happen. This is another case when I’ve sometimes seen the “Cancelled” error message that really reports a loss of interaction with the updater (the update actually succeeds, but can’t report success).
• Windows Terminal: same principal as before, write large when the entire Windows Terminal runtime has to change. When this occurs, WT usually writes a message into the active terminal window to say “Restart the window/session to run the changed version.” Good -oh!
• PowerShell: and again, if PowerShell is updating itself it must be ready to handle those changes. As we see in this particular case, something has changed that requires an uninstall/reinstall. My preference: using the GitHub installer instead. Easy-peasey.

And that, dear Readers, is how I often keep myself entertained, here in Windows-World. Great fun…

Here’s an interesting one. After running winget upgrade on Friday afternoon, I noticed something interesting. Even though I’d already upgraded that particular PC to PowerShell version 7.3.9, it still showed a version of 7.3.8 in need of an upgrade. Immediately, I started sussing out doubled-up PowerShell. As you can see in the lead-in graphic it was a case of “parallel versions.” Even though 7.3.9.0 is clearly installed (PowerShell 7-x64), so is 7.3.8 (PowerShell 7.3.8.0).

After Sussing Out Doubled-Up PowerShell,
Bye-Bye 7.3.8!

Turns out that 7.3.9 has some install changes. That means winget won’t simply upgrade the software. One must run winget uninstall, then winget install to do this particular round of the PowerShell upgrade dance. You can see this at work in the next screencap, which shows:

(a) notification from PowerShell that a new stable release is ready for download (white background against black text up top)
(b) notification from winget that “install technology is different” for new PowerShell release, so uninstall/install maneuver is needed

PowerShell is pretty clear that winget upgrade can’t handle this without extra maneuvers.

Thus, one approach here would be to run this sequence of wingets:

winget uninstall Microsoft.Powershell
winget install Microsoft.Powershell

The first removes the old version and the second installs the current (new) one. Easy-peasey, right?

Take the Long Way Home

The way I see things, there’s another choice when this kind of thing happens. The PowerShell installer file at GitHub (or the equivalent link shown at the top of the screencap: https://aka.ms/PowerShell-Release?tag=v7.3.9) not only installs the new PowerShell version, it also removes the old one. So I went ahead and ran PowerShell-7.3.9-win-x64.msi on the same machine where I captured the preceding screencap. I closed PS manually, instead of having the installer do it. Then I ran winget upgrade again. And sure enough, the doubled-up version once again appears!

It gets more interesting. I ran winget uninstall MIcrosoft.PowerShell –version 7.3.9.0 to remove the older version. This time, I let the (un)installer attempt to close PowerShell. It failed, and showed an “uninstallation abandoned error” (see next screencap).

Winget drops the ball trying to uninstall the newer version from inside that version! [Click image for full-sized view.]

Go with What Works

OK, I want to run the new version. But I also want to remove the older one. That cycles me back to the original screecap at the head of this blog post. If you go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps, you can easily excise older PowerShell versions from there. So that’s what I did. And presto: no more winget notifications that 7.3.8.0 needs an upgrade to 7.3.9.0.

One more thing: on another test machine (one running a preview version of PowerShell) I successfully used winget to uninstall 7.3.8.0 and then follow up with a successful 7.3.9.0 install. I think this worked because PowerShell 7.3.9.0 didn’t attempt to uninstall or install itself. That said, I did also have to manually install a new profile so I could make 7.3.9.0 my default PS selection afterwards. It’s always something, right?

Note added November 1: Do It From Command Prompt

On another test PC just now, I opened Windows Terminal. Then after opening a Command Prompt tab, I closed the open (default) PowerShell 7.3.8.0 tab. After that I was able to use winget to uninstall the older PS version and install the new one. This required no  new profile shenanigans. It’s my recommended approach until the PS team gets this fixed (I got confirmation from an MS contact yesterday that yes, this is a known thing and they’re working on it).

I have to laugh. If you take a look at the lead-in graphic you might be tempted to believe something amiss with winget. I was yesterday when this happened on one of my test PCs. So naturally, I tweeted (X’ed?) an MS colleague who runs the winget team. About 5 minutes later he responded with “Try a reboot!” Seems that others had been reporting similar woes amenable to this approach. To my chagrin, indeed a reboot fixes winget hiccup — this time, at least. Sigh.

If Reboot Fixes Winget Hiccup, Then What?

That adds another thing I need to try before bothering the developers another time. And, if that works for me (and some few others), it might also work for you, too. Thus, it should become a part of the normal troubleshooting routine.

Indeed, I had closed and re-opened Windows Terminal prior to contacting the team. And it hadn’t done the trick this time. In fact, I even uninstalled and reinstalled winget and that hadn’t worked, either — as you can see in the lead-in graphic.

Had I known then what I now know, I would’ve tried the reboot before those other more severe fixes. And it would have worked. Thus, the next time winget goes wonky on me (especially after an update) I’ll be sure to reboot my PC and trying again before sounding the alarm.

Interesting, eh? Things may not always look simple or obvious in Windows-World. Thank goodness they may sometimes be both, and amenable to a simple solution. All hail the “three-fingered salute” (remember when CTRL-ALT-DEL would force reboot a PC?) There’s no school like the old school!

Note Added October 10 (early PM hours)

As fate would have it, MS pushed an update to PowerShell today for version 7.3.8 through WU. After it updated my problem test PC, the same issue recurred: winget source was essentially not working. None of my previous fixes (reboot, uninstall & reset sources) worked. I had to force install the current production version (1.6.2771) over the current preview version (1.7.2782) to get things working properly again. Funny that this problem should happen on the very day I attempt to document a different issue. Amazing!