Winget doesnt run as system on fresh windows installs, even after running windows update and store updates

[JamesFCroft]

Brief description of your issue

Winget not running as system on a fresh install of Windows

This means it cannot be used with Intune to roll out software

Steps to reproduce

Install a fresh copy of Windows (I did mine as a VM) Windows 11 pro and Windows 11 enterprise tested, 23H2 and 22H2
SW_DVD9_Win_Pro_11_22H2.24_64BIT_English_Pro_Ent_EDU_N_MLF_X23-81095
Download PSexec
From an admin command prompt, Run PSexec -s CMD
run whoami to confirm you are NT\system.
cd c:\program files\windowsapps
dir to get the path, something like Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe
CD to that directory
Run winget.exe
No output will be displayed nor logs appear in the diagoutput directory, it should go to c:\windows\temp if run as system.
No install commands work, or viewing version of winget

Drop out to a normal command prompt as admin user and it works fine.

Expected behavior

Packages should install - blogs from 2023 as discussed on this site, report it is working, with the only issue of the exe not being in a PATH system variable
Logs should appear for every run

Actual behavior

Fails to run without any errors reported

Environment

Windows Package Manager v1.8.1911
Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.22631.4037
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.23.1911.0

[github-actions]

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[c-vo]

+1
same problem here

[surgatengit]

Winget has never worked properly, especially on clean installations, even though it comes pre-installed. The installation is often broken, preventing it from running or updating. The best solution is to install it directly.

Start-BitsTransfer -Source "https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/download/v1.8.1911/Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe.msixbundle" -Destination "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller.msixbundle"
Add-AppxPackage -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller.msixbundle"

[c-vo]

Workaround: In my case, the only solution that worked was separately installing the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, followed by a reboot.

[JamesFCroft]

Workaround: In my case, the only solution that worked was separately installing the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, followed by a reboot.

Yes! installing VC_redist.x64 fixed this for me
Thank you for taking the time to reply!

[maumeerally]

Does the Visual C++ Redistributable really need a reboot?

[denelon]

We've also built the Repair-WinGetPackageManager cmdlet in the Microsoft.WinGet.Client PowerShell module to help with bootstrapping issues.

[maumeerally]

I'll use it once its supported on PowerShell 5.1

[denelon]

The latest version of Microsoft.WinGet.Client should be working correctly in Windows PowerShell.

You will need to specify "-Scope System" so you get "machine wide" install since the system context doesn't have a "logged in" user. Note, some package installers don't support the system context, and some explicitly prohibit machine wide installs.

Have you encountered any issues with the latest version of the module in Windows PowerShell?

[maumeerally]

I just don't think it's ready for use with Autopilot just yet as that is my primary purpose of it. Especially after microsoft/winget-pkgs#180404 meant both Microsoft Office and Google Chrome were unable to install for a day or two. Can't turn around to the end user and say hey your machine failed to build because the winget pipeline had issues.

Been leveraging deployment methods in the following projects which seem to indicate as per the comments above installing the latest Visual C++ Redistributable is required to get the SYSTEM context to work:
https://github.com/djust270/Intune-Scripts/blob/master/Winget-InstallPackage.ps1
https://github.com/Romanitho/Winget-Install