I've been digging down this well for a while and hoping someone here can assist. I have 13 computers of varying windows versions that all have the same symptom, 64-bit powershell is broken. Nothing seems to add up or point to a cause. The only fix i have found is to do a repair install of windows, but ideally i'd like to figure out why its occuring in the first place.
#Powershell broken on multiple systems
plucky linden
When trying to launch powershell, i get the following error;
Windows PowerShell
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Attempting to perform the Start operation on the 'Registry' provider failed. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Attempting to perform the Start operation on the 'Alias' provider failed. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Attempting to perform the Start operation on the 'Environment' provider failed. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Attempting to perform the Start operation on the 'Function' provider failed. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Attempting to perform the Start operation on the 'Variable' provider failed. Could not load file or assembly 'System.Transactions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
Cannot find path 'C:\Users\myname' because it does not exist.
Cannot find path 'C:\Users\myname' because it does not exist.
Cannot find path 'C:\Users\myname' because it does not exist.
If i launch 32-bit powershell, it works fine.
have tried sfc and dism, both have returned they fix things but nothing related to powershell or .net. I've had this occur on Windows 10 22H2, Windows 11 22H2, and today on Windows 10 2016 LTSB. Nothing in event logs point to a cause either, I can pinpoint around when it began but nothing that would cause it.
modern coral
Have you already tried installing/reinstalling the latest version of .NET Framework? It seems like there’s something wrong with your .NET install or GAC and I’m not sure sfc will find/fix .net framework assembly issues.
https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework
Very strange for that to happen on multiple systems though, unless it is tied to a script or some maintenance task that was performed on every system.
brisk vigil
Probably need a fresh install of windows. I’d also be weary you had / have malware. https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/18648
I assume you copied and pasted from that issue? Was that issue your exact issue?
plucky linden
That is what I copied, the only difference is in the paths at the end, mine were system32 as I was running it elevated. Non elevated would just be a user path.
A reinstall does fix it, I'm just trying to figure out what's causing it. In this recent instance it's a point of sale device, which is locked down. No malware has come back on any of the other devices either.
brisk vigil
I would look at autoruns in the sysinternals toolkit to see if anything looks off.
sleek shoal
Have you already tried installing/reinstalling the latest version of .NET Framew...
This actually is probably the best advice I can suggest as well.. I am betting that somebody cleaned up an old dotnet version and that broke quite a bit of things.
@plucky linden Is there Vuln Remediation happening right now on these machines? I would take a look and find out. I am betting the old dotnet builds are being removed to minimize a vuln landscape.. which is causing issues with your version of powershell.
plucky linden
We do do remediations, but nothing like that (I am the one who does the remediations too). Autoruns doesn't show anything out of the ordinary compared to another point of sale that is working normally. I'll give the install a shot, I thought I had on another machine when I was initially troubleshooting this but I may be mistaken it's been a few months.
Will advise
plucky linden
Good news, reinstall of 4.8 worked. So that's that one ticked off. Going to try on other 10 machines that have the issue. Not sure what I can do with windows 11 though, I don't think there's anything newer than the one built in.
brisk vigil
thanks for sharing. glad it worked out!
I might put a note in that github issue for SEO and to help future folks.
plucky linden
Unfortunately looks like that may have been a one-off, I tried the same with a win 10 22h2 install, while 4.8.1 did report installing successfully, error persists.
digital dock
That is what I copied, the only difference is in the paths at the end, mine were...
mine were system32 as I was running it elevated
Is it possible you're mixing 32bit with 64bit, or vice-versa?
%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
%SystemRoot%\syswow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
I believe system32 is 64-bit, syswow64 is 32-bit
plucky linden
found this today, trying to decipher what exactly it's looking for, but could point to the root cause;
plucky linden
found what I think is breaking now, just unsure what is causing it. On the affected systems for windows 10 at least, "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_64\System.Transactions\v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089" is empty, when it should contain system.transactions.dll. Copying this from a working machine and powershell immediately begins working again.
confirmed fixed on windows 11 as well, same path and file