I can't seem to uninstall windows powershell in order to upgrade my windows 2003 enterprise x64 server to win2k8 ent x64.  It says...

You must make the following changes before upgrading Windows
Uninstall the following programs:

•  
  • Windows PowerShell

I read if I uninstall kb926139 I will in essence uninstall powershell, however I'm being told in add/remove programs that the program cannot be removed, nor is windows powershell displayed as an installed application.

 

• Edited by Stephen Barteau Thursday, March 25, 2010 8:53 PM revise

Hi,

 

Please refer to the following articles to uninstall PowerShell in Windows Server 2003.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926140

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926139

 

Hope it helps.

 

Tim Quan - MSFT

 

Yes, I have viewed both of these articles with no success.  I first looked to add/remove prog.  to uninstall powershell, however there is no listing of it on my server.  I then looked for the following kb's:

Hotfix for Windows Server 2003 (KB926139)

Hotfix for Windows Server 2003 (KB926140)

Hotfix for Windows Server 2003 (KB926141)

KB926139 exists, however it states " this update cannot be removed".

I've also read this from the hyper link provided by you:

"If you install Windows PowerShell 1.0 on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, and then you upgrade to Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2, you cannot uninstall Windows PowerShell 1.0. For more information, see the "Uninstall Windows PowerShell" section."

The server is currently on SP2 and I can't be certain in what order Powershell was installed.  How am I going to be able to upgrade this server in it's current state?

Thanks,
Stephen

 

Hi,

 

I suggest uninstalling SP2 first and then trying to uninstall Powershell.

 

If the issue persists, you may consider performing an In-Place Upgrade of Windows Server 2003 and then upgrade to Windows Server 2008.

 

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=816579

 

 

Before doing that, please backup important data on your system first.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Tim Quan - MSFT

• Marked as answer by Tim QuanModerator Thursday, April 01, 2010 2:52 AM

I had a similar problem I was unable to upgrade from server 2003 sp2 to server 2008 r2, tried all of the steps people had suggested but to no avail, so  in the end i took the following brutal steps, please note that you do this at your own risk ...

a backup

did a full backup of the registry (just in case)

searched through the registry removing all powershell entries

backup c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell directory to an external location usb key etc , (just in case)

delete c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell

then run setup again ..

 

• Proposed as answer by Farr Rathore Friday, February 18, 2011 12:02 PM
• Unproposed as answer by Farr Rathore Friday, February 18, 2011 12:03 PM

Thanks Farr. Your fix works fine for me :)

I think an easier way of handling all of this is going to Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Click the "Show Updates" Tickbox -> Locate "windows management framework core" and uninstall that.

PowerShell 2.0 is listed as Windows Management Framework Core.

• Proposed as answer by Daniel Sarfati Thursday, June 27, 2013 2:29 AM

Perfect, this worked for me :)

I think an easier way of handling all of this is going to Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Click the "Show Updates" Tickbox -> Locate "windows management framework core" and uninstall that.

PowerShell 2.0 is listed as Windows Management Framework Core.

This was the answer that solved the problem for me.  Thanks, Daniel

Just rename the folder PowerShell:

Server 2003 32 bit: %windir%\System32\WindowsPowerShell
Server 2003 64 bit: %windir%\Syswow64\WindowsPowerShell

To any name. Run the install again.

Credit to William Faulkner:

Server 2003 to 2008 Upgrade: Fix PowerShell compatibility error

• Proposed as answer by boelter Wednesday, February 04, 2015 3:46 PM

Uninstall both in this order:

Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> "Service Pack 2"

Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Click the "Show Updates" Tickbox -> Locate "windows management framework core"

And Upgrade W2003 to w2008 is running

This worked for me... just renamed the folders and the upgrade proceeded.