The work that worked for me was to copy the file "default-publish.ps1", which is already on my local computer, and put it in the project folder.
Then I changed the publishing script to use this file:
$publishScript = "$PSScriptRoot\default-publish.ps1"
EDIT:
For those who do not have the file "default-publish.ps1" on their local, here it is:
[cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$true)] param($publishProperties, $packOutput, $nugetUrl) $publishModuleVersion = '1.0.1' function Get-VisualStudio2015InstallPath{ [cmdletbinding()] param() process{ $keysToCheck = @('hklm:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0', 'hklm:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0', 'hklm:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VWDExpress\14.0', 'hklm:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VWDExpress\14.0' ) [string]$vsInstallPath=$null foreach($keyToCheck in $keysToCheck){ if(Test-Path $keyToCheck){ $vsInstallPath = (Get-itemproperty $keyToCheck -Name InstallDir -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | select -ExpandProperty InstallDir -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) } if($vsInstallPath){ break; } } $vsInstallPath } } $vsInstallPath = Get-VisualStudio2015InstallPath $publishModulePath = "{0}Extensions\Microsoft\Web Tools\Publish\Scripts\{1}\" -f $vsInstallPath, $publishModuleVersion if(!(Test-Path $publishModulePath)){ $publishModulePath = "{0}VWDExpressExtensions\Microsoft\Web Tools\Publish\Scripts\{1}\" -f $vsInstallPath, $publishModuleVersion } $defaultPublishSettings = New-Object psobject -Property @{ LocalInstallDir = $publishModulePath } function Enable-PackageDownloader{ [cmdletbinding()] param( $toolsDir = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Web Tools\Publish\package-downloader-$publishModuleVersion\", $pkgDownloaderDownloadUrl = 'http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=524325') # package-downloader.psm1 process{ if(get-module package-downloader){ remove-module package-downloader | Out-Null } if(!(get-module package-downloader)){ if(!(Test-Path $toolsDir)){ New-Item -Path $toolsDir -ItemType Directory -WhatIf:$false } $expectedPath = (Join-Path ($toolsDir) 'package-downloader.psm1') if(!(Test-Path $expectedPath)){ 'Downloading [{0}] to [{1}]' -f $pkgDownloaderDownloadUrl,$expectedPath | Write-Verbose (New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadFile($pkgDownloaderDownloadUrl, $expectedPath) } if(!$expectedPath){throw ('Unable to download package-downloader.psm1')} 'importing module [{0}]' -f $expectedPath | Write-Output Import-Module $expectedPath -DisableNameChecking -Force } } } function Enable-PublishModule{ [cmdletbinding()] param() process{ if(get-module publish-module){ remove-module publish-module | Out-Null } if(!(get-module publish-module)){ $localpublishmodulepath = Join-Path $defaultPublishSettings.LocalInstallDir 'publish-module.psm1' if(Test-Path $localpublishmodulepath){ 'importing module [publish-module="{0}"] from local install dir' -f $localpublishmodulepath | Write-Verbose Import-Module $localpublishmodulepath -DisableNameChecking -Force $true } } } } try{ if (!(Enable-PublishModule)){ Enable-PackageDownloader Enable-NuGetModule -name 'publish-module' -version $publishModuleVersion -nugetUrl $nugetUrl } 'Calling Publish-AspNet' | Write-Verbose # call Publish-AspNet to perform the publish operation Publish-AspNet -publishProperties $publishProperties -packOutput $packOutput } catch{ "An error occurred during publish.`n{0}" -f $_.Exception.Message | Write-Error }