Add unattended mode to SandboxTest.ps1

[Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly)]

📖 Description

Adds an opt-in unattended mode to Tools\SandboxTest.ps1 so the output of the PowerShell session running inside Windows Sandbox can be read from the host. Today the script starts the Sandbox and returns immediately, which means scripted or automated manifest testing has no way to see whether the install succeeded.

A new -Unattended <minutes> parameter makes the script wait for the Sandbox session to finish and then write its output to the caller. The value is the timeout in minutes and is required, since PowerShell cannot make a parameter value optional. When the parameter is omitted the script behaves exactly as it does today.

Inside the Sandbox

• Starts a transcript, and pipes the winget install output through Out-Host so Windows PowerShell 5.1 captures native command output
• Writes metadata.json: WinGet version, OS build, manifest folder name, the winget install exit code in decimal and hexadecimal, the -Script exit status, and start/end timestamps
• Copies the WinGet DiagOutputDir logs out
• Writes a done marker from a finally block so it is always written
• Leaves the Sandbox window open, as before

On the host

• The mapped folder prompt becomes a plain warning instead of blocking on input
• Polls for the done marker until the timeout, then writes the transcript, the result paths and the metadata to the output
• Exits with the new code 5 on timeout, after writing whatever partial transcript exists

Results are written to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\SandboxTest\Results as transcript.log, metadata.json, WinGetLogs\ and done.

Files changed

• Tools/SandboxTest.ps1 - the new parameter and the unattended code paths
• doc/tools/SandboxTest.md - the new option, an Unattended Mode section covering the results layout, and exit code 5
• .github/actions/spelling/expect.txt - adds bbwe and wekyb, the tokens spell checking splits out of the WinGet package family name Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe used in the new documentation

Tools/PRTest.ps1 is unchanged.

Validation

PSScriptAnalyzer, Pester Tests and Spell Checking pass on the fork. Verified with real Sandbox runs on Windows 11 26100:

Scenario	Result
-Unattended 15 with a manifest and a -Script	exit 0, full transcript written to the host, InstallExitCode 0, script output captured, WinGet logs copied
A manifest with a deliberately corrupted InstallerSha256	InstallExitCode -1978335215 / 0x8A150011 captured in the metadata
-Unattended 1 against a script that sleeps past the timeout	exit 5, partial transcript written
No -Unattended	unchanged; returns immediately and writes no results folder

Copilot assisted with this change.

✅ Checklist

• Signed the Contributor License Agreement
• Linked to an issue (if applicable)
  • Resolves [New Feature]: Unattended mode for SandboxTest.ps1 so results can be read from the host #441418

📦 Manifest Checklist

Not applicable; this PR does not modify any manifests.

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[Demitrius Nelon (denelon)]

Kaleb Luedtke (@Trenly) it looks like the script analyzer failed

[Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly)]

Kaleb Luedtke (Kaleb Luedtke (@Trenly)) it looks like the script analyzer failed

It passed locally - thats not an error I've seen before. Will investigate

[Kaleb Luedtke (Trenly)]

Demitrius Nelon (@denelon) - I've merged the upstream to see if that resolves the issue. Here's the confirmation of the workflow passing on by branch from the original commit: https://github.com/Trenly/winget-pkgs/actions/runs/36213753043