Installation woes when MS Store is limited / blocked

[Wrong-Code]

I've followed some other discussions here inherent the change of installation from MSI to MSIX. Unfortunately, while I understand that MSI is not very elegant and has its issues, MSIX has other issues too.

In my current work environment we have MS Store blocked by company policy. Here's what happens when I try to install oh-my-posh using ether the MSIX bundle (via winget or the Powershell install script) or the MSI installer. Please note that I have local administration rights on my computer, but only when using a different account (i.e. normal user != admin user)

1. Using winget, as the admin user

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget 

Installs oh-my-posh only for the current (admin) user.

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget --scope machine

Fails installing the package, probably due to the restrictions imposed on the MS Store.

Result

Installation is possible, but only for the current user. It is not possible to install the software machine wide.

2. Using winget, as the normal user

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget

Apparently installs the software without errors, but actually does nothing (my interpretation is that it fails silently). The software indeed is not present anywhere.

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget --scope machine

Fails as expected, as the user is not a local administrator.

Result

Installation is not possible.

3. Using the MSIX installer, as the admin user

Installs the software, for the current (admin user)

3. Using the MSIX installer, as the normal user

Fails to install the software with error 0x80070005 (which is probably the same error encountered by winget, silently ignored).

4. Using the MSI installer (from the Github releases)

Installs the software as the current user, so it is installed in the user's context (admin or not). System-wide (machine) installation doesn't seem to be supported.

Result

In my current environment, the MSI installer is the only possibility for a normal user to get oh-my-posh running.

Final considerations

My personal take is that neither MSIX nor MSI are nice solutions, but MSI when properly managed solves more elegantly the issue of installing the software either in the user scope, or the machine scope. Yes, it needs an effort for supporting this, I agree.

Please feel free to follow-up if more details are needed.