PowerShell StartProcess: invalid handle

Question

I'm trying to install google chrome on a remote machine through powershell. This is what I'm trying to do (I've pretty much just scraped this together from a couple of other posts on various sites):

$Path = $env:TEMP; 

$Installer = "chrome_installer.exe";

(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/375.126/chrome_installer.exe', "$Path\$Installer");

Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;

Remove-Item $Path\$Installer 

it's failing on the fourth line: Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;

with the error:

Start-Process : This command cannot be run due to the error: The handle is 
 invalid.
At line:1 char:2
+  Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -V ...
+  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOp 
   erationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.C 
   ommands.StartProcessCommand

I'm quite inexperienced with PowerShell and I'm having a hard time figuring out what the "handle" in the error is. Any help is appreciated :)

EDIT: with a try/catch { $_ | FL * -Force} around the failing command it gives this output:

PSMessageDetails      : 
Exception             : System.InvalidOperationException: This command cannot 
                        be run due to the error: The handle is invalid.
                           at System.Management.Automation.MshCommandRuntime.Th
                        rowTerminatingError(ErrorRecord errorRecord)
TargetObject          : 
CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], 
                        InvalidOperationException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands
                        .StartProcessCommand
ErrorDetails          : 
InvocationInfo        : System.Management.Automation.InvocationInfo
ScriptStackTrace      : at <ScriptBlock>, <No file>: line 4
PipelineIterationInfo : {}

With catching $_.Exception instead, it gives:

Message        : This command cannot be run due to the error: The handle is 
             invalid.
Data           : {}
InnerException : 
TargetSite     : Void ThrowTerminatingError(System.Management.Automation.ErrorR
                 ecord)
StackTrace     :    at System.Management.Automation.MshCommandRuntime.ThrowTerm
                 inatingError(ErrorRecord errorRecord)
HelpLink       : 
Source         : System.Management.Automation
HResult        : -2146233079

Answer 1

Elevation

The script would need elevation. To read about remote elevation: https://ss64.com/ps/syntax-elevate.html

If you use Invoke-Command to run a script or command on a remote computer, then it will not run elevated even if the local session is. This is because any prompt for elevation will happen on the remote machine in a non-interactive session and so will fail.

Using Enter-PSSession to start a whole new session will support elevation if you specify CredSSP, which enables the delegation of user credentials:

New-PSSession ss64dom.com -Auth CredSSP -cred ss64dom\user64

Zone identifier

The script could be hampered by the Internet Zone Identifier marker.

Source: http://woshub.com/how-windows-determines-that-the-file-has-been-downloaded-from-the-internet/

In PowerShell 3.0, you can display the list of files with Zone.Identifier stream in a directory using this command:

Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Get-Item -Stream Zone.Identifier -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object FileName

The attribute is removed as follows:

Remove-Item .\install-file.exe -Stream Zone.Identifier

In Windows PowerShell 4.0, you can delete Zone.Identifier using a separate cmdlet:

Unblock-File install-file.exe

Addendum: Remove-Item will raise an error if it does not find the alternate stream. Therefore use:

Remove-Item $Path\$Installer -Stream Zone.Identifier -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Answer 2

As far as I can tell, it comes down to the fact that in Azure Web App environments, you don't have permissions to install applications freely.

I guess management of the environment is restricted so they can guarantee a certain level of service.

You can read more about it here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/choose-web-site-cloud-service-vm

Answer 3

try double-quoting the FilePath you are feeding the Start-Process command, OR use $(Join-Path $Path $Installer)

Right now you are escaping the $ for $Installer, so the path to the file cannot be resolved.

Start-Process -FilePath "$Path\$Installer" -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;

# OR (even better I think)

Start-Process -FilePath $(Join-Path $Path $Installer) -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;