diff --git a/src/AzureRMTools.ts b/src/AzureRMTools.ts
index 8e3fb6ee7..9f645ae3a 100644
--- a/src/AzureRMTools.ts
+++ b/src/AzureRMTools.ts
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ import { getNormalizedDocumentKey } from './documents/templates/getNormalizedDoc
 import { gotoResources } from './documents/templates/gotoResources';
 import { getItemTypeQuickPicks, InsertItem } from "./documents/templates/insertItem";
 import { LinkedFileLoadState } from './documents/templates/linkedTemplates/LinkedFileLoadState';
-import { assignTemplateGraphToDeploymentTemplate, INotifyTemplateGraphArgs, openLinkedTemplateFile } from './documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates';
+import { assignTemplateGraphToDeploymentTemplate, INotifyTemplateGraphArgs, openLinkedTemplateFile, tryOpenNonLocalLinkedFile } from './documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates';
 import { allSchemas, getPreferredSchema } from './documents/templates/schemas';
 import { getQuickPickItems, sortTemplate } from "./documents/templates/sortTemplate";
 import { mightBeDeploymentParameters, mightBeDeploymentTemplate, setLangIdToArm, templateDocumentSelector, templateOrParameterDocumentSelector } from "./documents/templates/supported";
@@ -1017,7 +1017,7 @@ export class AzureRMTools implements IProvideOpenedDocuments {
 
             const linkedTemplateDocumentProvider: vscode.TextDocumentContentProvider = {
                 provideTextDocumentContent: async (uri: vscode.Uri, _token: vscode.CancellationToken): Promise<string | undefined> => {
-                    return this.provideContentForNonlocalUri(uri);
+                    return await this.provideContentForNonlocalUri(uri);
                 }
             };
             ext.context.subscriptions.push(
@@ -1040,8 +1040,15 @@ export class AzureRMTools implements IProvideOpenedDocuments {
      * linked-template:https%3A//raw.githubusercontent.com/StephenWeatherford/template-examples/master/linkedTemplates/uri/child.json
      */
     private async provideContentForNonlocalUri(uri: vscode.Uri): Promise<string | undefined> {
-        return callWithTelemetryAndErrorHandlingSync('provideContentForNonlocalUris', () => {
-            const dt = this.getOpenedDeploymentDocument(uri);
+        return callWithTelemetryAndErrorHandling('provideContentForNonlocalUris', async (context: IActionContext) => {
+            context.errorHandling.rethrow = true;
+
+            let dt = this.getOpenedDeploymentDocument(uri);
+            if (!dt) {
+                await tryOpenNonLocalLinkedFile(uri, context, false); //asdf handle linked-template:
+                dt = this.getOpenedDeploymentDocument(uri);
+            }
+
             return dt?.documentText;
         });
     }
@@ -1077,7 +1084,7 @@ export class AzureRMTools implements IProvideOpenedDocuments {
                     const fullValidationOn = deploymentTemplate.templateGraph?.fullValidationStatus.fullValidationEnabled ?? templateFileHasParamFile;
                     isWarning = !fullValidationOn;
                     statusBarText = isWarning ?
-                        `$(warning) WARNING: Full template validation off. Add parameter file or top-level default values to enable.` :
+                        `$(warning) WARNING: Full template validation off. Add parameter file or top-level default values to parameters to enable.` :
                         statusBarText;
 
                     this._paramsStatusBarItem.command = "azurerm-vscode-tools.selectParameterFile";
diff --git a/src/documents/templates/getNormalizedDocumentKey.ts b/src/documents/templates/getNormalizedDocumentKey.ts
index 4456aea01..e54f23b53 100644
--- a/src/documents/templates/getNormalizedDocumentKey.ts
+++ b/src/documents/templates/getNormalizedDocumentKey.ts
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ import { removeLinkedTemplateScheme } from "../../util/prependLinkedTemplateSche
 export function getNormalizedDocumentKey(documentUri: vscode.Uri): string {
     // We want a normalized file path to use as key, but also need to differentiate documents with different URI schemes
     const uri = removeLinkedTemplateScheme(documentUri);
-    return `${uri.scheme}|${normalizePath(uri)}`;
+    return normalizePath(uri);
 }
diff --git a/src/documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates.ts b/src/documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates.ts
index 46ddd3afd..0796bd2d1 100644
--- a/src/documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates.ts
+++ b/src/documents/templates/linkedTemplates/linkedTemplates.ts
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import { httpGet } from '../../../util/httpGet';
 import { normalizePath } from '../../../util/normalizePath';
 import { ofType } from '../../../util/ofType';
 import { pathExists } from '../../../util/pathExists';
-import { prependLinkedTemplateScheme } from '../../../util/prependLinkedTemplateScheme';
+import { prependLinkedTemplateScheme, removeLinkedTemplateScheme } from '../../../util/prependLinkedTemplateScheme';
 import { DeploymentTemplateDoc } from '../../templates/DeploymentTemplateDoc';
 import { LinkedTemplateScope } from '../../templates/scopes/templateScopes';
 import { setLangIdToArm } from '../../templates/supported';
@@ -111,18 +111,7 @@ export async function onRequestOpenLinkedFile(
         } else {
             // Something else (http etc).  Try to retrieve the content and return it directly
             try {
-                const content = await httpGet(requestedLinkUri.toString());
-                assert(ext.provideOpenedDocuments, "ext.provideOpenedDocuments");
-                const newUri = prependLinkedTemplateScheme(requestedLinkUri);
-
-                // We need to place it into our docs immediately because our text document content provider will be queried
-                // for content before we get the document open event
-                const dt = new DeploymentTemplateDoc(content, newUri, 0);
-                ext.provideOpenedDocuments.setOpenedDeploymentDocument(newUri, dt);
-
-                const doc = await workspace.openTextDocument(newUri);
-                setLangIdToArm(doc, context);
-
+                const content = await tryOpenNonLocalLinkedFile(requestedLinkUri, context, true);
                 return { content };
             } catch (error) {
                 return { loadErrorMessage: parseError(error).message };
@@ -131,6 +120,25 @@ export async function onRequestOpenLinkedFile(
     });
 }
 
+export async function tryOpenNonLocalLinkedFile(uri: Uri, context: IActionContext, open: boolean): Promise<string> {
+    uri = removeLinkedTemplateScheme(uri);
+    const content = await httpGet(uri.toString());
+    assert(ext.provideOpenedDocuments, "ext.provideOpenedDocuments");
+    const newUri = prependLinkedTemplateScheme(uri);
+
+    // We need to place it into our docs immediately because our text document content provider will be queried
+    // for content before we get the document open event
+    const dt = new DeploymentTemplateDoc(content, newUri, 0);
+    ext.provideOpenedDocuments.setOpenedDeploymentDocument(newUri, dt);
+
+    if (open) {
+        const doc = await workspace.openTextDocument(newUri);
+        setLangIdToArm(doc, context);
+    }
+
+    return content;
+}
+
 /**
  * Attempts to load the given file into a text document in VS Code so that
  * it will get sent to the language server.
diff --git a/src/util/normalizePath.ts b/src/util/normalizePath.ts
index 4d3120bf2..b2e1984d4 100644
--- a/src/util/normalizePath.ts
+++ b/src/util/normalizePath.ts
@@ -4,18 +4,20 @@
 
 import * as path from 'path';
 import { Uri } from "vscode";
-import { isWin32 } from '../constants';
+import { documentSchemes, isWin32 } from '../constants';
 
-export function normalizePath(filePath: Uri | string): string {
-    const suffix: string = (typeof filePath === 'string' || !filePath.query)
-        ? ''
-        : `?${filePath.query}`;
+export function normalizePath(pathOrUri: Uri | string): string {
+    if (pathOrUri instanceof Uri && pathOrUri.scheme === documentSchemes.file) {
+        pathOrUri = pathOrUri.fsPath;
+    }
 
-    const fsPath: string = typeof filePath === 'string' ? filePath : filePath.fsPath;
-    let normalizedPath = path.normalize(fsPath);
-    if (isWin32) {
-        normalizedPath = normalizedPath.toLowerCase();
+    if (typeof pathOrUri === 'string') {
+        let normalizedPath = path.normalize(pathOrUri);
+        if (isWin32) {
+            normalizedPath = normalizedPath.toLowerCase();
+        }
+        pathOrUri = Uri.parse(normalizedPath);
     }
 
-    return normalizedPath + suffix;
+    return pathOrUri.toString();
 }
diff --git a/src/vscodeIntegration/Treeview.ts b/src/vscodeIntegration/Treeview.ts
index 9f0e7be6a..74568de38 100644
--- a/src/vscodeIntegration/Treeview.ts
+++ b/src/vscodeIntegration/Treeview.ts
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ export class JsonOutlineProvider implements vscode.TreeDataProvider<IElementInfo
         const activeTextEditor = vscode.window.activeTextEditor;
         // tslint:disable-next-line: no-suspicious-comment
         // TODO: Shouldn't be using activeTextEditor (can be null) - store in IElementInfo?
-        assert(activeTextEditor);
+        assert(activeTextEditor, "getTreeItem: no activeTextEditor");
         // tslint:disable-next-line: no-non-null-assertion // Asserted
         const document = activeTextEditor?.document;
         const start = document.positionAt(elementInfo.current.key.start);