Help! save-help for totally offline PC (PS newbie)

PowerShell Help
1

I thought this would be easy.
I want to Save-Help for an offline PC (no internet or network) that has PS 7.4.5,
using an online PC (internet access) that has PS 4.5.1. Both are Windows 11.
I want to save help for all modules, onto a thumb drive, to install on the offline PC.

On the offline PC I ran

Export-Clixml  -inputObject PSModuleInfo  - Path D:\Exported.xml`

(where D: is the thumb drive), and it produced this xml file:

<Objs Version="1.1.0.1" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/powershell/2004/04">
  <S>PSModuleInfo</S>
</Objs>

… then attached that to the online PC and ran these 2 commands (from a save-Help example), which produced the error below:

PS C:\Windows\system32> $deserialized_m = Import-CliXml "D:\Exported.xml"
PS C:\Windows\system32> Save-Help -Module $deserialized_m -DestinationPath "D:\!PSHelpSaved"
Save-Help : No Windows PowerShell modules were found that match the following pattern: PSModuleInfo. Verify the pattern and then try the command again.
At line:1 char:1
+ Save-Help -Module $deserialized_m -DestinationPath "D:\!PSHelpSaved"
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (PSModuleInfo:String) [Save-Help], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ModuleNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SaveHelpCommand

What am I missing?

Thanks for any tips!

2

Hi, welcome to the forum! Where did you get the idea this would do what you’re wanting to do? This is just exporting the string PSModuleInfo. I would take a look at Save-Module and check out this link

3

Hi krzydoug, thanks for replying.

I got it from
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/save-help?view=powershell-7.4
which says

“… It is also possible to save a PSModuleInfo object to disk or removable media by running Export-Clixml on a computer that does not have Internet access, import the object on a computer that does have Internet access, and then run Save-Help on the PSModuleInfo object. The saved help can be transported to the remote computer by using removable storage media, such as a USB drive. The help can be installed on the remote computer by running Update-Help. This process can be used to install help on computers that do not have any kind of network access.”

The specific steps were from a microsoft support page or maybe from running get-Help save-Help -examples, I don’t remember, anyway I was trying the 2nd part, “import the object on a computer that does have internet access”.

I checked out your link. Interesting, but it seems to be for PCs with no internet but do have network access, which i don’t have. Thanks, though.

4

From the XML file it looks like you didn’t run Get-Module so you haven’t exported the required info. You have, as @krzydoug pointed out, just exported the the string ‘PSModuleInfo’.

The help file gives the following example for the export:

$m = Get-Module -Name "DhcpServer" -ListAvailable
Export-CliXml -Path "E:\UsbFlashDrive\DhcpModule.xml" -InputObject $m
5

Hi matt-bloomfield. Thanks for replying. What info needs to be in the xml file, when you need help for all modules, not one in particular? I had just downloaded ps 7.4.5 to a thumb drive and installed it on the offline PC, but it has essentially no help available, so I need everything. Would Get-Module to do that? Sorry, I’m totally clueless with PS, and can’t find clear answers on Microsoft.com.

I thought the Export-CliXml would produce a file that simply identifies which PS version the offline PC has, and other commands on the online PC would tell it to save-Help for everything for that version. Wish there were a way to just say “get me all help for PS 7.4.5” …

(All I’m trying to do is update a Win 11 installation image with the latest Defender and LCU before taking a new PC online. A year ago it was simple to do that using cmd commands, but now Microsoft seems to require using PS, which is a real challenge when you don’t know PS to begin with and can’t get the help files to learn it… Sorry for the rant)

6

I’ve never done this, so I’m not sure if/how well it works.

The example given in the help is just for a single module, so if you want to do all available modules, just omit the module name. That should give you an XML file that contains the info. you need.

$m = Get-Module -ListAvailable
Export-CliXml -Path "E:\UsbFlashDrive\AllModules.xml" -InputObject $m

Unless the online PC is completely clean, I would except you’ll be exporting information for modules that don’t exist on the offline computer, so expect you may still get some errors.

7

Thank you matt-bloomfield, that worked! Generated a large xml file >6MB.
On the online machine I did these commands:

$deserialized_m = Import-CliXml "D:\!!PSExported\Exported2.xml"
Save-Help -Module $deserialized_m -DestinationPath "D:\!PSHelpSaved"

and as you suspected it produced errors for modules that don’t support updatable help,
and a few others I’m investigating but all in all, a big success. THANK YOU

8

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