PowerShell script fails with error 14001 Script Unavailable

Usage and Config Platform
1

I created a Powershell type Action which runs successfully on 38 out of 39 target systems. The systems are all Win2022 (21H2) and completely patched.

On one system, I get a status I’ve never seen before:

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The client log shows the following error:

At 15:36:38 -0400 - CustomSite_Custom_Content (http://bigfixserver.xyz:52311/cgi-bin/bfgather.exe/CustomSite_Custom_Content)
   Error executing script C:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client\__BESData\__bes132.ps1: CreateProcess failed ( 14001: The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail. )

Searching for this on the Internet returned lots of results promising to fix the error, but not much on the root cause.

Anyone have any insight into this error?

2

Side-by-side errors that I’ve experienced usually indicate a library is missing or corrupt.
I’d be really interested in whether PowerShell can execute outside.of BigFix on that particular machine.

3

Good idea. I’ll get with some admins and see what happens.

4

Looks like the issue was with the C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe.Config file on that machine. It was modified in a way that made the XML invalid, which caused the OS to block execution.

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5

Nice find! Thanks for posting the solution.

6

It was defiinitely a head scratcher. At first the admin was able to run the script locally, but it turned out he was using the PowerShell ISE, not PowerShell itself.

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