While getting a new workstation is usually nice, reinstalling all your softwares and settings is definitely not the most pleasant thing that comes to my mind. One of the factors that can contribute the most to making the process even less pleasant is working around the corporate proxy.

Many applications live on the assumption that nobody uses proxy servers, thus making online repositories inaccessible for new installations and for automatic updates.

Unfortunately, PsGallery is no exception.

If you run Get-PSRepository on a vanilla installation of Windows 10 behind a corporate proxy, you will get a warning message:

WARNING: Unable to find module repositories.

After unleashing my Google-Fu, I learned that I had to run the following command to recover the missing PsRepository:

Register-PSRepository -Default -Verbose

The command works without complaining, with just a warning suggesting that something might have gone wrong:

VERBOSE: Performing the operation "Register Module Repository." on target "Module Repository 'PSGallery' () in provider 'PowerShellGet'.".

Again, running Get-PSRepository returns an empty result set and the usual warning:

WARNING: Unable to find module repositories.

The problem here is that the cmdlet Register-PsRepository assumes that you can connect directly to the internet, without using a proxy, so it tries to do so, fails to connect and does not throw a meaningful error messsage. Thank you, Register-PsRepository, much appreciated!

In order to fix it, you need to configure your default proxy settings in your powershell profile. Start powershell and run the following:

notepad $PROFILE

This will start notepad and open your powershell profile. If the file doesn’t exist, Notepad will prompt you to create it.

Add these lines to the profile script:

[system.net.webrequest]::defaultwebproxy = new-object system.net.webproxy('http://YourProxyHostNameGoesHere:ProxyPortGoesHere')
[system.net.webrequest]::defaultwebproxy.credentials = [System.Net.CredentialCache]::DefaultNetworkCredentials
[system.net.webrequest]::defaultwebproxy.BypassProxyOnLocal = $true

Save, close and restart powershell (or execute the profile script with iex $PROFILE).

Now, you can register the default PsRepository with this command:

Register-PSRepository -Default

If you query the registered repositories, you will now see the default PsRepository:

Get-PSRepository

Name                      InstallationPolicy   SourceLocation
----                      ------------------   --------------
PSGallery                 Untrusted            https://www.powershellgallery.com/api/v2/

Horray!