PowerShell StartProcess: invalid handle - powershell

Question

I'm trying to install google chrome on a remote machine through powershell.
This is what I'm trying to do (I've pretty much just scraped this together from a couple of other posts on various sites):
$Path = $env:TEMP;
$Installer = "chrome_installer.exe";
(new-object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/375.126/chrome_installer.exe', "$Path\$Installer");
Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;
Remove-Item $Path\$Installer
it's failing on the fourth line:
Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;
with the error:
Start-Process : This command cannot be run due to the error: The handle is
invalid.
At line:1 char:2
+ Start-Process -FilePath $Path\$Installer -Args "/silent /install" -V ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOp
erationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.C
ommands.StartProcessCommand
I'm quite inexperienced with PowerShell and I'm having a hard time figuring out what the "handle" in the error is.
Any help is appreciated :)
EDIT:
with a try/catch { $_ | FL * -Force} around the failing command it gives this output:
PSMessageDetails :
Exception : System.InvalidOperationException: This command cannot
be run due to the error: The handle is invalid.
at System.Management.Automation.MshCommandRuntime.Th
rowTerminatingError(ErrorRecord errorRecord)
TargetObject :
CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process],
InvalidOperationException
FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands
.StartProcessCommand
ErrorDetails :
InvocationInfo : System.Management.Automation.InvocationInfo
ScriptStackTrace : at <ScriptBlock>, <No file>: line 4
PipelineIterationInfo : {}
With catching $_.Exception instead, it gives:
Message : This command cannot be run due to the error: The handle is
invalid.
Data : {}
InnerException :
TargetSite : Void ThrowTerminatingError(System.Management.Automation.ErrorR
ecord)
StackTrace : at System.Management.Automation.MshCommandRuntime.ThrowTerm
inatingError(ErrorRecord errorRecord)
HelpLink :
Source : System.Management.Automation
HResult : -2146233079

Answer 1

Elevation
The script would need elevation. To read about remote elevation:
https://ss64.com/ps/syntax-elevate.html
If you use Invoke-Command to run a script or command on a remote
computer, then it will not run elevated even if the local session is.
This is because any prompt for elevation will happen on the remote
machine in a non-interactive session and so will fail.
Using Enter-PSSession to start a whole new session will support
elevation if you specify CredSSP, which enables the delegation of user
credentials:
New-PSSession ss64dom.com -Auth CredSSP -cred ss64dom\user64
Zone identifier
The script could be hampered by the Internet Zone Identifier marker.
Source: http://woshub.com/how-windows-determines-that-the-file-has-been-downloaded-from-the-internet/
In PowerShell 3.0, you can display the list of files with
Zone.Identifier stream in a directory using this command:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Get-Item -Stream Zone.Identifier
-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object FileName
The attribute is removed as follows:
Remove-Item .\install-file.exe -Stream Zone.Identifier
In Windows PowerShell 4.0, you can delete Zone.Identifier using a
separate cmdlet:
Unblock-File install-file.exe
Addendum:
Remove-Item will raise an error if it does not find the alternate stream. Therefore use:
Remove-Item $Path\$Installer -Stream Zone.Identifier -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Answer 2

As far as I can tell, it comes down to the fact that in Azure Web App environments, you don't have permissions to install applications freely.
I guess management of the environment is restricted so they can guarantee a certain level of service.
You can read more about it here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/choose-web-site-cloud-service-vm

Answer 3

try double-quoting the FilePath you are feeding the Start-Process command, OR use $(Join-Path $Path $Installer)
Right now you are escaping the $ for $Installer, so the path to the file cannot be resolved.
Start-Process -FilePath "$Path\$Installer" -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;
# OR (even better I think)
Start-Process -FilePath $(Join-Path $Path $Installer) -Args "/silent /install" -Verb RunAs -Wait;