This post describes how to fix: The type initializer for 'System.Management.Automation.Tracing.PSEtwLog' threw an exception. Background I recently installed XIA Configuration on Windows Server 2008 and wanted to scan a Microsoft Azure tenant .  In order to do so, I first had to install the Azure PowerShell cmdlets.  This required WMF 5.0 which I downloaded and installed. Error I then tried to open PowerShell but it immediately closed.  When I tried to open PowerShell in a command prompt, I could see the error was 'The type initializer for 'System.Management.Automation.Tracing.PSEtwLog' threw an exception.' Fix After doing some research, I discovered I also needed to install .NET Framework 4.5.  PowerShell then opened successfully and I was able to install the Azure PowerShell cmdlets and run the scan. Video You can see this fix in the following video PowerShell does not open on Windows Server 2008 : Related Posts -  WARNING: Unable to

We've recently uploaded a new tutorial describing how to use XIA Configuration as an Azure documentation tool . The video describes how to scan an Azure tenant and view the data in XIA Configuration's web interface. - The PDF export feature is used to generate an Azure Tenant document with custom branding and reports  are used to query the entire environment. - The item comparison feature  allows you to compare the configuration of different Azure environments or different versions of the same environment. Download Free 30-day Trial > Learn more >