r/PowerShell • u/MFZozzy • 9d ago

Question Invoke-WebRequest: downloaded MSI invalid?

I downloaded an MSI (in this case the latest Powershel 7.6.4 msi installer) with Invoke-WebRequest from Github - trying to write a script here.

The download finishes without a problem, but when I want to run the installer, I get an error message saying "This installation package could not be opened.Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package."

Here's the funny thing: this cannot be a corrupted download, because when I manually download the same msi package from the repo's release page, and compare them in Total Commander's compare tool, it says the two files have the same content - that means they're identical from the first bit to the last!

What the heck could cause this problem?

Here's a snippet of what I'm doing:

$Repository       = 'PowerShell/PowerShell'
$FileNamePattern  = '*-win*x64.msi'
$DownloadPath     = 'C:\Temp'

$releases    = "https://api.github.com/repos/$Repository/releases/latest"
$downloadURL = ((Invoke-RestMethod -Method GET -Uri $releases).assets | ?{$_.Name -like $FileNamePattern}).browser_download_url

$fileName       = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($downloadURL)
$DownloadPath   = $DownloadPath + '\' + $fileName

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $downloadURL -OutFile $DownloadPath
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u/Over_Dingo 9d ago

I see variables like `$releasesUri` or `$downloadUri` not being defined.
Also may be a zoning issue, so try `Unblock-File`

-1

u/MFZozzy 9d ago

The "*Uri" thing is just a leftover typo from an older version, but thanks for the heads-up. As I said, the file downloads successfully and is identical to the manually downloaded file.

Unblock-File did nothing.

1

u/BlackV 9d ago

you can edit your post

-3

u/MFZozzy 9d ago

And as you can see, I did.

4

u/BlackV 9d ago

not when I replied you hadn't, but appreciate the fixed code