It’s impossible to miss the fact that you don’t have local help installed–
the first time you ask for help, PowerShell will prompt you to update the help
content.
Updating PowerShell’s help should be your first task. These files are stored in the
System32 directory, which means your shell must be running under elevated privileges.
If it doesn’t say “Administrator” in the PowerShell title bar, you’ll likely get an
error message:
PS C:\> update-help
Update-Help : Failed to update Help for the module(s)
'Microsoft.PowerShell.Management, Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics, Microsoft.PowerShell.Core,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Host, Microsoft.PowerShell.Security,
Microsoft.WSMan.Management' : This command did not update help topics for
the Windows PowerShell core commands or for any modules in the
$pshome\Modules directory. To update these help topics, start Windows
PowerShell with the "Run as Administrator" option and try the command
again.
At line:1 char:1
+ update-help
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Update-Help], Except
ion
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UpdatableHelpSystemRequiresElevation,Micros
oft.PowerShell.Commands.UpdateHelpCommand
We’ve boldfaced the important part of the preceding error message—it tells you what
the problem is and how to solve it. Run the shell as administrator, run Update-Help
again, and you’ll be good to go in a few minutes.
the first time you ask for help, PowerShell will prompt you to update the help
content.
Updating PowerShell’s help should be your first task. These files are stored in the
System32 directory, which means your shell must be running under elevated privileges.
If it doesn’t say “Administrator” in the PowerShell title bar, you’ll likely get an
error message:
PS C:\> update-help
Update-Help : Failed to update Help for the module(s)
'Microsoft.PowerShell.Management, Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics, Microsoft.PowerShell.Core,
Microsoft.PowerShell.Host, Microsoft.PowerShell.Security,
Microsoft.WSMan.Management' : This command did not update help topics for
the Windows PowerShell core commands or for any modules in the
$pshome\Modules directory. To update these help topics, start Windows
PowerShell with the "Run as Administrator" option and try the command
again.
At line:1 char:1
+ update-help
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Update-Help], Except
ion
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UpdatableHelpSystemRequiresElevation,Micros
oft.PowerShell.Commands.UpdateHelpCommand
We’ve boldfaced the important part of the preceding error message—it tells you what
the problem is and how to solve it. Run the shell as administrator, run Update-Help
again, and you’ll be good to go in a few minutes.
