Choco install doesn't expand envvars, and installation into a custom location fails

[hmemcpy]

What You Are Seeing?

...
PATH environment variable does not have %localappdata%\Chocolatey\bin in it. Adding...
Import-Module : The specified module '%localappdata%\Chocolatey\helpers\chocolateyInstaller.psm1' was not loaded
because no valid module file was found in any module directory.
At C:\Users\hmemcpy\AppData\Local\Temp\chocolatey\chocInstall\tools\chocolateysetup.psm1:95 char:3
+   Import-Module "$realModule" -Force
+   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : ResourceUnavailable: (%localappdata%\...yInstaller.psm1:String) [Import-Module], FileNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : Modules_ModuleNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.ImportModuleCommand

What is Expected?

Chocolatey expands all environment variables, so ChocolateyInstall pointing to %localappdata%\Chocolatey will succeed.

How Did You Get This To Happen? (Steps to Reproduce)

1. Define ChocolateyInstall to point to %localappdata%\Chocolatey
2. Attempt to install Choco from powershell command line

[ferventcoder]

@hmemcpy can you try this with the beta? I think it may have resolved this - we did a ton of work surrounding env vars.

The kind of env var registry key you are looking for is an expanding registry key, so you definitely need to review #699

[ferventcoder]

Especially #699 (comment)

[ferventcoder]

If you created the environment variable and saved it yourself prior to install of choco, how did you create it? You would have needed to create the expanding registry value, which I'm not sure you can do with the GUI.

[ferventcoder]

@hmemcpy ping.

[hmemcpy]

Sorry, sorry!
Yeah, I've created the envvar myself (wanted to have choco installed in a non-ProgramData location, so I set ChocolateyInstall manually to %localappdata%\Chocolatey (using RapidEE, but it shouldn't matter)

I would like to try it with the beta, is there a way to force install choco from scratch with the beta version?

[ferventcoder]

@hmemcpy yes. Adjust your install call to use https://chocolatey.org/installabsolutelatest.ps1 instead.

OR

Set an environment variable right before you call install. $env:chocolateyVersion = 'BETA_VERSION' where the beta version is what you are looking for.

There is a list of the variables you can pass at the top of https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1

[ferventcoder]

If you create the environment variable yourself, it _must_ be an expanding registry value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) for Chocolatey to see the value appropriately.

What I believe we are triaging here is whether Chocolatey should just give users the benefit of the doubt and expand the values (even if the values are just REG_SZ). Is that an accurate description of what you are asking for here?