Winget download {package id} --locale en-US does not work.

[noyard]

Relevant area(s)

WinGet CLI

Relevant command(s)

winget download

Brief description of your issue

command "winget show Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" shows manifest data.

command "winget download Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" returns "No applicable installer found; see logs for more details."

Steps to reproduce

command "winget download Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US"

Expected behavior

command to return:

Found Cisco Jabber [Cisco.Jabber] Version 15.2.0.60459
This application is licensed to you by its owner.
Microsoft is not responsible for, nor does it grant any licenses to, third-party packages.
Downloading https://binaries.webex.com/jabberclientwindows/20251117102106/CiscoJabberSetup.msi

Actual behavior

Command returns "No applicable installer found; see logs for more details."

Environment

Windows Package Manager v1.12.350
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Windows: Windows.Desktop v10.0.26200.7462
System Architecture: X64
Package: Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller v1.27.350.0

Winget Directories
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Logs                               %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\Diag…
User Settings                      %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\sett…
Portable Links Directory (User)    %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Links
Portable Links Directory (Machine) C:\Program Files\WinGet\Links
Portable Package Root (User)       %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages
Portable Package Root              C:\Program Files\WinGet\Packages
Portable Package Root (x86)        C:\Program Files (x86)\WinGet\Packages
Installer Downloads                %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
Configuration Modules              %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WinGet\Configuration\Modules

Links
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Privacy Statement   https://aka.ms/winget-privacy
License Agreement   https://aka.ms/winget-license
Third Party Notices https://aka.ms/winget-3rdPartyNotice
Homepage            https://aka.ms/winget
Windows Store Terms https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/storedocs/terms-of-sale

Admin Setting                             State
--------------------------------------------------
LocalManifestFiles                        Enabled
BypassCertificatePinningForMicrosoftStore Disabled
InstallerHashOverride                     Disabled
LocalArchiveMalwareScanOverride           Enabled
ProxyCommandLineOptions                   Disabled
DefaultProxy                              Disabled

[noyard]

same issue with the Powershell module

Command:
Export-WinGetPackage -id Cisco.Jabber -Locale en-US

Returns:
Id Name Source Status ExtendedErrorCode CorrelationData

---

Cisco.Jabber Cisco Jabber winget NoApplicableInstallers System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8A150010)

[Trenly]

This seems to be because the manifest does not specify a locale for the Jabber installer - because --locale is treated as a requirement, the CLI sees no locale as not matching. I believe this is behaving as expected

@noyard - Please try without the --locale parameter and see if the download is successful

[noyard]

@Trenly - without the --locale parameter the command works.

It looks like there is an en-US file GitHub repo ... https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/blob/master/manifests/c/Cisco/Jabber/15.2.0.60459/Cisco.Jabber.locale.en-US.yaml

But the big question is why does the "winget show Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" work and "winget download Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" does not? I would expect that both would give results or both errors out (like the command does not meet the query... there isn't an en-US locale in the manifest).

[Trenly]

@Trenly - without the --locale parameter the command works.

It looks like there is an en-US file GitHub repo ... https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/blob/master/manifests/c/Cisco/Jabber/15.2.0.60459/Cisco.Jabber.locale.en-US.yaml

But the big question is why does the "winget show Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" work and "winget download Cisco.Jabber --locale en-US" does not? I would expect that both would give results or both errors out (like the command does not meet the query... there isn't an en-US locale in the manifest).

Its a bit confusing because winget show --locale specifies the locale file to use for showing the package details, which as you pointed out does have en-US as the default locale file.

winget download however, along with other commands like winget install or winget upgrade don’t use the locale file at all. Instead, the use of '--localehere specifies which locale should be used for the installer, which is a property specified in the installer manifest. If a package specifiesInstallerLocale: en-US, then using --locale en-USwould work for the download and--locale zh-CN` would not.

In this case, the installer locale is unspecified, which causes the error when trying to specify that an en-US installer is needed.

I do agree that this is not a great user experience, and perhaps @denelon and the engineering team can come up with a way to let the download happen and present a warning or something - especially because there are many cases where the installer locale is unspecified, but a user may want a locale manifest other than the default locale

[denelon]

Great call out @noyard and great explanation @Trenly

I agree, this is confusing and WinGet should be more resilient here.