I have to laugh. There’s a new version of PowerShell (7.4.3) in town, and WinGet is now picking up that update. As has been typical for some while, the upgrade goes A-OK until the last steps. Then, as you can see in the lead-in graphic, it says “Installation abandoned.” Skip a line, then it says “Cancelled” before the prompt returns. With tongue in cheek, I see this as a PowerShell auto-upgrade abandonment issue. The upgrade actually works: the text updates in Terminal don’t match up with reality.
Refuting PowerShell Auto-Upgrade Abandonment Issue
Here’s another, more colorful screencap from a different test PC. Up top it shows the same info as in the preceding screencap. But because I used the magic keyboard shortcut ALT+SHIFT+- (minus key), the Terminal window is split horizontally. Notice the PS self-ID at the top of the lower pane: PowerShell 7.4.3.
After the install, if I open another pane below, it shows version 7.4.3. Update success! [Click image for full-size view.]
Clearly the new install has neither been abandoned, nor has it been cancelled. The old 7.4.2 session simply can’t report successful completion of the upgrade because it’s running the older version, not the newer one. The fix is easy: close the old pane/session. All new panes or sessions will show the new version. But until that pane is closed, the old version keeps running.
It’s just one of those interesting things when a running program seeks to update itself (or to have the package manager inside its embrace do likewise). Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. The update works!
The GitHub Alternative
It takes a day or two after a new PS comes out before WinGet picks it up. For those who wish to jump sooner, a visit to the GitHub PS page — where you’d follow the Latest release link to get an .msi download (or whatever version your PC or VM requires) — makes sense. It also avoids the reported self-update shenanigans entirely.
But hey! Those shenanigans are exactly what I like to observe and try to understand. It’s just another one of the little things that makes life in Windows-World such a hoot.
