Windows Management Framework 5 (aka Powershell 5) fails to install if your Windows was installed with a different locale than en-US. In my case, it was en-GB, so it is not a big deal, right?
Well, not exactly. After downloading WMF 5.0 update package, it fails to apply the update – saying “Update is not applicable to your computer”. Do not expect to get something more verbose, neither find any useful information in system logs.
After desperate surfing through MS support tickets and trying different fixes, it turned out that the last suspect was the locale configuration. Ironically, that MS support engineers from Seattle couldn’t verify the problem since they all have en-US Windows installed.
So far, the only working way to install WMF 5 (which means, PS 5.0) if it fails to apply the update is to change the locale setting – which is a non-trivial task. It requires running the system DISM utility in the Offline mode (when current Windows installation is not loaded). Also, it requires obtaining en-US language pack .cab archive. And finally, you may even brick your boot configuration if don’t run it properly. Sounds exciting, let’s start then!
- Set the default language and interface language to en-US (Control Panel – Language – Advanced Options)
- Prepare a bootable Win 8.1 USB installation drive – I used the same image as for the initial installation. Just write it to USB (Win32DiskImager is a great tool for this).
- Download en-US language pack. It can’t be found as a separate package from the official resources. What I did was to use MSDN subscription downloads page and grab an installation media of Windows 8.1 Language Pack – it is DVD with a bunch of language packs on it. After, mount the ISO and navigate to “langpacks/en-US”. save the .cab file from it to the convenient location on your drive. I.e. C:\lp.cab
- Boot into troubleshooting mode with command prompt – from running Windows session, press Restart while pressing the “Shift” key. The system will log out and troubleshooting options menu will be loaded from the USB.
Navigate to Troubleshoot -> Advanced options -> Command Prompt
- In the command prompt, run the DISM utility:
dism /Image:C:\ /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\lp.cab. - Do not change the locale here. It is possible and sometimes described as one of the steps to apply, i.e using
dism ... /Set-Syslocale, but better don’t. – it made my machine to fail to boot until I reverted this fix back. - Boot normally – the language pack was installed but not yet applied. Open “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Language”, select “English – United States” and click “Options” on the right side. Under “Windows display language” there will be a link to set the current locale to it. In a different situation, I’ve seen it being done from the “Control Panel -> Language -> Advanced Settings -> Change Locale” menu.
- After signing in and out – you may check that the locale has been changed from the elevated command prompt: `dism /Online /Get-Intl`.
- Now, the WMF 5 update can be applied – it might firstly install some sort of fix and ask for a reboot. Afterward, run the installer again – and you will get your precious PS 5.0
This is it! I hope, MS folks will fix this issue soon – so the update can be applied to a system with any locale.
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