Latest Windows Install instructions do not work - gives Powershell errror

[beladinsec]

Install instructions through this following error, on Windows 2021 r2. What can I do?

C:\Users\Administrator>powershell -Command “& $([scriptblock]::Create((New-Objec
t Net.WebClient).DownloadString(‘https://platform.activestate.com/dl/cli/install
.ps1’))) -activate-default ActiveState/Perl-5.32”

Exception calling “DownloadString” with “1” argument(s): “The underlying
connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.”
At line:1 char:5

• & $([scriptblock]::Create((New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(’ …

• ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: ( , MethodInvocationException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebException

The expression after ‘&’ in a pipeline element produced an object that was not
valid. It must result in a command name, a script block, or a CommandInfo
object.
At line:1 char:3

• & $([scriptblock]::Create((New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(’ …

• + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [], RuntimeException
  + FullyQualifiedErrorId : BadExpression
  
  

Has anyone else had this problem?

[JeffR]

Hi beladinsec,

I assume this was Windows Server 2012 r2. I have passed it along to the team to see if there are any compatibility issues with this version.

Cheers,

-JR

[ActiveState-Support]

Your server is using an old version of Powershell and TLS support is not enabled by default.

You can enable it with an additional command.

Perl v.26 - Installing Modules

This is expected with Windows 10 versions prior to the 2019 releases. If you can update to the latest supported versions of Windows, you will get a newer Powershell, and won’t likely see this. Older versions of PowerShell are not configured to allow the use of TLS 1.1 and 1.2. There’s an additional command you can run to prepare older versions. [Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls -bor [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls11 -bor [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::T…

[mikes-bluef]

That error still occurs on Windows 11 using Powershell 7

PS C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7> powershell -Command “& $([scriptblock]::Create((New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString(‘https://platform.activestate.com/dl/cli/671895999.1648669923_pdli01/install-latest.ps1’))) -c’state activate --default mikes-xxxxx/Python-3.9.10-Windows’”
At line:1 char:1

• & # Copyright 2019-2021 ActiveState Software Inc. All rights reserved …
• ~
  Missing expression after ‘&’ in pipeline element.
  At line:1 char:71
• … # Copyright 2019-2021 ActiveState Software Inc. All rights reserved.

•                                                                      ~
  

Unexpected token ’
’ in expression or statement.
At line:18 char:41

• $script:SESSION_TOKEN_VERIFY = -join ({, TOKEN, })

•                                     ~
  

Missing expression after unary operator ‘,’.
At line:18 char:42

• $script:SESSION_TOKEN_VERIFY = -join ({, TOKEN, })

•                                      ~~~~~
  

Unexpected token ‘TOKEN’ in expression or statement.
At line:18 char:47

• $script:SESSION_TOKEN_VERIFY = -join ({, TOKEN, })

•                                           ~
  

Missing argument in parameter list.
At line:20 char:31

• $script:SESSION_TOKEN_VALUE = "

•                           ~
  

The string is missing the terminator: ".
+ CategoryInfo : ParserError: ( , ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : MissingExpression

[peteg]

Hey @mikes-bluef – it looks like you’re running the script from within the PowerShell shell, can you try pasting the command into just a regular cmd.exe prompt? Because it calls out to Powershell, it’s designed to be run from a Command Prompt rather than directly within Powershell.