Description

Hi,

As of today, some of our pipelines are failing due to PowerShell-related issues.

Error:
Invoke-WebRequest : Windows PowerShell is in NonInteractive mode. Read and Prompt functionality is not available.

We’ve noticed this issue only occurs with agents running the new release:

windows-2025 / windows-latest
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win25%2F20251216.149​

windows-2022
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win22%2F20251216.147

It did not occur on the previous version:
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win25%2F20251208.136​

We didn’t expect these agent versions to be used / deployed yet, as they are still marked as pre-release versions.​

Could you help us out? Thanks in advance!

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

windows-2025 / windows-latest
20251216.149.1
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win25%2F20251216.149

windows-2022
20251216.147.1
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win22%2F20251216.147

Is it regression?

Yes, following version did work:
20251208.136.1
https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/win25%2F20251208.136

Expected behavior

No error when running an Invoke-WebRequest call from PowerShell.

Actual behavior

Invoke-WebRequest : Windows PowerShell is in NonInteractive mode. Read and Prompt functionality is not available.
At D:\a\_temp\72dffce7-3efb-4ac0-be7c-949db05dd3e8.ps1:45 char:13
+ $response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $pipelineApiUrl -Body $body -Metho ...
+             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Invoke-WebRequest], PSInvalidOperationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperation,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeWebRequestCommand

Repro steps

1. Create following pipeline

trigger:
- main

pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

steps:
- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://google.com" -Method Get

2. Run pipeline

Another example that shows that windows-2022 is also affected:

trigger:
- main

jobs:
- job: TestWebRequest
  strategy:
    matrix:
      windows_latest:
        imageName: 'windows-latest'
      windows_2022:
        imageName: 'windows-2022'
  pool:
    vmImage: $(imageName)

  steps:
  - task: PowerShell@2
    inputs:
      targetType: 'inline'
      script: |
        Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://google.com" -Method Get