Question

[Void][Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.Web.Administration")

New-WebApplication -Name 'testApp' -Site 'Default Web Site' -PhysicalPath c:\test -ApplicationPool DefaultAppPool 

That is the contents of test.ps1.
When I run .\test.ps1 I get the following error.

New-WebApplication : Cannot retrieve the dynamic parameters for the
cmdlet. Retrieving the COM class factory for compon ent with CLSID
{688EEEE5-6A7E-422F-B2E1-6AF00DC944A6} failed due to the following
error: 80040154. At C:\code\work\users\mchevett\test.ps1:6 char:19
+ New-WebApplication <<<< -Name ‘testApp’ -Site ‘Default Web Site’
-PhysicalPath c:\test -ApplicationPool DefaultAppPo ol
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:)
[New-WebApplication], ParameterBindingException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId :
GetDynamicParametersException,Microsoft.IIs.PowerShell.Provider.NewWebApplicationCommand

This error message is not helping me at all. Any ideas how to get a better error message? Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

I had the exact same problem because I was calling the wrong version of PowerShell from my program. I’m not sure about this but I think when you have a x86 program it calls the x86 version of PowerShell, which fails.

To specifically use the 32-bit version, call this one from your program:

C:\Windows\SysWoW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

To use the 64-bit version (on a 64-bit OS), call this one from your program:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

Using C:\Windows\SysNative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe from within a 32bit process will give you the 64bit powershell. Using it from within a 64bit process will give you a file-not-found error.