Powershell: Update-Help not installing help files locally

[fabio-muramatsu]

Steps to reproduce

1. Open Powershell as admin
2. Run Update-Help -Force

Expected behavior

Help files are installed and accessible when running Get-Help.

Actual behavior

Help files are not installed locally, and running Get-Help returns the message Get-Help cannot find the Help files for this cmdlet on this computer. It is displaying only partial help..

Environment data

> $PSVersionTable
Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.0.0-rc
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    v6.0.0-rc
OS                             Microsoft Windows 10.0.15063
Platform                       Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Observations

I was unable to reproduce this problem in 2 other systems, both running Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and the same version of Powershell, so I'm not sure if this is related to the affected system being on Creators Update. Any help would be appreciated.

[iSazonov]

You could use some sniffer to see that you have access to the help update site.

[fabio-muramatsu]

Hi, thanks for the response.
I think the updater is managing to reach the update site, or at least I'm not getting any connection errors when running in verbose mode:

> Update-Help -Force -Verbose
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855958"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855958"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/Microsoft.PowerShell.Management/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855960"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855960"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855966"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/PSReadLine/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855966"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/PSReadLine/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855946"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/CimCmdlets/"
VERBOSE: Resolving URI: "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=855946"
VERBOSE: Your connection has been redirected to the following URI: "https://pshelp.blob.core.windows.net/powershell/help/6/CimCmdlets/"
...

However, I don't see any attempts to save the help files. I'll see if it's actually downloading anything from these requests.

[iSazonov]

I believe -verbose isn't useful in the case. You need sniff real trafic.

[fabio-muramatsu]

Ok, I see a bunch of data being exchanged with pshelp.blob.core.windows.net, but since it's TLS-encrypted it's hard to tell what's going on from a sniffer.
There are a few plain HTTP requests to urls like http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/2/B/B2BD8D1A-073E-468E-8191-DB39EB94AE18/PackageManagement_4ae9fd46-338a-459c-8186-07f910774cb8_HelpInfo.xml, which returns a small XML file with culture info, apparently.

[iSazonov]

I'd compare working and broken traces.

[fabio-muramatsu]

Hey, just found the issue! My system language is pt-br, so when I specified -UICulture en-US it worked as expected. Anyways, thanks for your help!