Missing Help Files in Powershell V5.0

Question

Powershell Version: 5.0.10586.494

I just began working with powershell this weekend and I discovered that I cannot find any help files when using the shell, for example, I was looking to read the about_Comparison_Operators help file but it seems as though the console cannot find it.

When doing: Get-Help About_* the only result I get is About_CimSession... it seems like there are no other help files?

This TechNet article suggests that in Powershell v3 the module must be imported,

To download or update the help files for a module in Windows PowerShell 3.0, use the Update-Help cmdlet.

I don't know if it's the same deal in my case? I've used the update-help cmdlet (as admin) and it does not seem to effect the help files.

Thanks!

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I've been running PS as admin while trying to update help. This runs without error, but the help files remain untouched.

UPDATE: Still no luck, tried updating help by specifying language using the UICulture parameter but this didn't make a difference. Will keep this post updated if I find a fix.

Kristinakristine

You need to start powershell as administrator and then call the Update-Help otherwise when it is finish downloading all the help files it will not be able to update them. UpdatableHelpSystemRequiresElevation – Snuggle

I've been running Powershell as admin, Update-Help hasn't done anything regarding the help files, it updates without error... but the help files are untouched. – Kristinakristine

check this https://mcmap.net/q/1176172/-why-i-get-other-result-for-the-get-help-about_-expression – Snuggle

Tried the command Update-Help -UICulture (Get-Culture).Name as suggested in the post linked above, it seemed to have ran correctly but did not make any changes to the help files. I've got about 7 GB free on the system drive as well, so that shouldn't be a problem either. – Kristinakristine

Also see this, with some troubleshooting hints: blogs.technet.microsoft.com/heyscriptingguy/2012/08/31/… – Smalt

Thanks, I shall take a look, still no luck at this point. – Kristinakristine

Answer 1

Update: PowerShell updatable help is no longer broken. About_ helpfiles are now downloaded with the correct extension. The formatting of these plaintext files still doesn't equal the old versions, however.

---

PowerShell updatable help is currently broken. PS5 doesn't ship with those about_* helpfiles, and if you update-help to download them, they aren't stored with the appropriate file extension, so get-help doesn't read them.

Only recently were these files being downloaded at all, so if you haven't tried in a while you should still do update-help -force in an elevated session. Then, see this answer for a one-liner that will rename the files correctly: https://superuser.com/a/1134681/4782

However, due to a (probably) unrelated issue, these new help files have some mangled text formatting that makes them very difficult to read any time a table-like layout is being used. If you'd like instead to grab the PS4-era about_* files with proper formatting and use those instead, an alternative solution can be found here: https://github.com/kilasuit/Install-AboutHelp. Note that this solution will unzip an archive of about_* files to the en\ locale folder, which may not be your default locale (mine is en-US\, for example). This will work fine since the en\ location will be used as a fallback as long as the desired document doesn't exist in your default locale's folder.

Further reference:

• https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/2028
• https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/301869-powershell/suggestions/15832144-powershell-5-on-windows-10-server-2012-helpfiles-a
• https://windowsserver.uservoice.com/forums/301869-powershell/suggestions/17014843-core-help-files-as-of-2016-11-08-have-broken-tex

Abranchiate

After not even attempting to update the help files for the past month, I just ran update-help -force and this managed to pull all the About_* help files, I now have all the help files I was looking for. Not sure what caused this but your answer was a big help, thank you. – Kristinakristine

Yes, this changed just a couple of days ago. All of the help files are now available for collaboration on GitHub as well. I still have some issues with the formatting, but it's a step in the right direction. – Abranchiate

Answer 2

FOR non-English OS only

If you are using PowerShell v5 on an operating system that has not the "en-US" language settings then update-help tries to download the help files for your language which might not be available. Use:

Update-Help -UICulture "en-US"

in an elevated (admin) console.

Background

You can check your language setting with the cmdlet get-culture. In my case I get:

PS C:\> Get-Culture

LCID             Name             DisplayName                                                                                                                         
----             ----             -----------                                                                                                                         
1031             de-DE            Deutsch (Deutschland)

and at least today (20.7.2017) there are help-files missing (for example get-services). Note that the get-help applet will still first look for help files in your language before it will resort to "en-US" Quelle (in Deutsch).

Elephantiasis