PowerShell Update-Help does not install 'about_' help articles

Question

I am a new PowerShell user. I'm using PS verison 5.1.14393.3471 on a fully updated Windows Server 2016 installation.

I used Get-Help for the first time today and followed the instructions to run Update-Help. The majority of the about_ help articles were not installed and I have been unable to install them.

I found this question and this bug report. Both seem to describe the issue I am having and both say it was solved.

I have tried Update-Help, Update-Help -Force, Update-Help -UICulture en-US and Update-Help -UICulture en-US -Force. My locality is en-AU. I am running powershell as administrator.

I am still missing the majority of the about_ help articles.

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Get-Help about_*

Name                              Category  Module                    Synopsis
----                              --------  ------                    --------
about_BeforeEach_AfterEach        HelpFile                            performed at the beginning and end of every It block. This can eliminate duplication of code
about_Mocking                     HelpFile                            Pester provides a set of Mocking functions making it easy to fake dependencies
about_Pester                      HelpFile                            Pester is a BDD based test runner for PowerShell.
about_should                      HelpFile                            Provides assertion convenience methods for comparing objects and throwing
about_TestDrive                   HelpFile                            A PSDrive for file activity limited to the scope of a singe Describe or

I've been messing with this for a while and can't find a solution. Any advice would be appreciated.

Some additional information following comments:

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> (Get-Help -Name 'about_*').count
5
PS C:\> $Host.CurrentCulture.Name
en-AU
PS C:\> $Host.CurrentUICulture.Name
en-US
PS C:\> Get-ChildItem -Directory $pshome

    Directory: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----       12/09/2016     04:22                en
d-----       17/06/2020     20:30                en-US
d-----       16/07/2016     06:23                Examples
d-----       10/08/2019     10:24                Modules
d-----       16/07/2016     06:23                Schemas
d-----       16/07/2016     06:23                SessionConfig

PS C:\> Get-ChildItem $pshome\en-US

    Directory: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\en-US

Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
-a----       12/09/2016     04:21           3568 default.help.txt
-a----        6/05/2014     15:27         143981 Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Diagnostics.dll-help.xml
-a----        5/06/2020     01:49        2549460 Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Management.dll-Help.xml
-a----        5/06/2020     01:50        2195100 Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.Utility.dll-help.xml
-a----        5/06/2020     01:48          27900 Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleHost.dll-help.xml
-a----        5/06/2020     01:49         291850 Microsoft.PowerShell.Security.dll-help.xml
-a----        5/06/2020     01:50          63171 Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility-help.xml
-a----       12/09/2016     04:21          11776 powershell.exe.mui
-a----       12/09/2016     04:21          54784 PSEvents.dll.mui
-a----       12/09/2016     04:21           5632 pspluginwkr.dll.mui
-a----       12/09/2016     04:21           5120 pwrshmsg.dll.mui
-a----        5/06/2020     01:48        2987565 System.Management.Automation.dll-help.xml

I am getting a couple of non-terminating errors when I run Update-Help but they seem unrelated.

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> Update-Help -UICulture "en-US" -Force
Update-Help : Failed to update Help for the module(s) 'Microsoft.WSMan.Management, PSReadline' with UI culture(s) {en-US} : Unable to retrieve the HelpInfo XML file for UI culture en-US. Make sure the HelpInfoUri property in the module manifest is valid or check your
network connection and then try the command again.
At line:1 char:1
+ Update-Help -UICulture "en-US" -Force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [Update-Help], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnableToRetrieveHelpInfoXml,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.UpdateHelpCommand

Update-Help : Failed to update Help for the module(s) 'PlatformIdentifier, UEV' with UI culture(s) {en-US} : Unable to connect to Help content. The server on which Help content is stored might not be available. Verify that the server is available, or wait until the
server is back online, and then try the command again.
At line:1 char:1
+ Update-Help -UICulture "en-US" -Force
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Update-Help], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnableToConnect,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.UpdateHelpCommand

Answer 1

A follow-up to my comment:

Update-Help https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/update-help?view=powershell-7 Downloads and installs the newest help files on your computer.

Update-Help
      [[-Module] <String[]>]

# Local default modules locations
explorer "$pshome\Modules"

So, in normal cases...

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | 
Select-Object -Property Caption, Version | 
Format-Table -AutoSize

Caption           Version                                                                                        
-------           -------
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 10.0.18363                                                                                                                                                                                                             


$PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      18362  752

You should be getting this number of topics.

(Get-Help -Name 'about_*').Count
181

If you are saying when you run Update-Help and are not seeing any error message, you can do something like this to catch errors for review.

Update-Help -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -ErrorVariable ErrMsgDetail
$ErrorMsgDetail.Exception

You can look at the help file store location to make sure they are all there.

# Review PowerShell help files location
explorer "$pshome\$($Host.CurrentCulture.Name)"

You can also try this...

• PowerTip: Save Offline Version of PowerShell Help Use the Save-Help Windows PowerShell cmdlet, and specify a shared location for the downloaded files on a computer that does have access to the Internet. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/powertip-save-offline-version-of-powershell-help

Save-Help -Module * -DestinationPath 'D:\Scripts\PSHelpOffline' -Force

Then you can update modules from that location

If push comes to shove, as long as you have an internet connection, you can just use the -Online switch to see the help.

Get-Help -Name Get-Process -Online

Update

As per this...

Do you have .help.txt files in PSHome\en-US

# All 'About' Help topics
Get-Help about_*

Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\en-US' -Filter '*.txt'
# Results
<#
    Directory: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\en-US


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name                                                                                                               
----                -------------         ------ ----                                                                                                               
-a----        09-Aug-15     09:46          29397 about_ActivityCommonParameters.help.txt                                                                            
-a----        09-Aug-15     09:46           7306 about_Aliases.help.txt                                                                                             
-a----        09-Aug-15     09:46          16442 about_Arithmetic_Operators.help.txt                                                                                
-a----        09-Aug-15     09:46           9216 about_Arrays.help.txt  
...  
#>


(Get-ChildItem -Path 'C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\en-US' -Filter '*.txt').Count
# Resutls
<#
129
#>

# Get a specific 'About' topic
Get-Help about_Functions

# Get just the Synopsis of all 'About' topics and display to the screen
Get-Help about* |
Select Name, Synopsis

# Get just the Synopsis of all 'About' topics and display to a selectable
Get-Help about* |
Select-Object -Property Name, Synopsis |
Out-GridView -Title 'Select Topic' -OutputMode Multiple |
ForEach-Object { Get-Help -Name $PSItem.Name -ShowWindow }

# Review PowerShell help files location
explorer "$pshome\$($Host.CurrentCulture.Name)"

Answer 2

Answering my own question here.

I've spent some time looking at this and have come to the conclusion that Powershell updatable help is pretty much broken because the help file repositories are a mess.

Here's an article describing the problem and a workaround.

The Microsoft.Powershell.Core help content cabinet file that I built following these instructions contained all of the 'about_' conceptual article help files. The equivalent file in Microsoft's online repository does not contain the conceptual articles and was modified about two weeks ago.

I would not recommend relying on Powershell's built in updatable help. Either use the online documentation or follow the procedure described in the article linked above to build the help files from source.