The absence of the 'secretmanagement' directory seems to modify the behavior of the Unregister-SecretVault cmdlet

[LaurentDardenne]

Expected use : Get-SecretVault return nothing.

Now I delete the 'secretmanagement' directory

$PSVersionTable

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      5.1.19041.610
PSEdition                      Desktop
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.1.19041.610}
BuildVersion                   10.0.19041.610
CLRVersion                     4.0.30319.42000
WSManStackVersion              3.0
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1

Repro:

get-module

import-module Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretManagement
import-module Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore
#first installation
Register-SecretVault -Name SecretStore -ModuleName Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore -DefaultVault
Get-SecretVault
# Name        ModuleName                       IsDefaultVault
# ----        ----------                       --------------
# SecretStore Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore True

Get-SecretVault|Unregister-SecretVault
Get-SecretVault
#nothing
dir $env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerShell

Register-SecretVault -Name SecretStore -ModuleName Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore -DefaultVault
del $env:USERPROFILE\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerShel\secretmanagement\
Get-SecretVault|Unregister-SecretVault
Get-SecretVault
# Name        ModuleName                       IsDefaultVault
# ----        ----------                       --------------
# SecretStore Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore True

Register-SecretVault -Name SecretStore -ModuleName Microsoft.PowerShell.SecretStore -DefaultVault
#Errror  : Register-SecretVault : Provided Name for vault is already being used.

When a close the current session and open a new session, Get-SecretVault return nothing.

It's not really a bug but a special case I think.

[PaulHigin]

This behavior is by design. The vault registry information is cached in memory and only updated when file contents change. But I agree the missing directory behavior should be better. I am thinking SecretManagement should try to re-create the directory/registry file, which it does anyway after PowerShell is restarted.