diff --git a/code/addons/vitest/src/postinstall.ts b/code/addons/vitest/src/postinstall.ts
index 731133213bb9..76a89d325f6f 100644
--- a/code/addons/vitest/src/postinstall.ts
+++ b/code/addons/vitest/src/postinstall.ts
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import { SupportedFramework } from 'storybook/internal/types';
 
 import * as find from 'empathic/find';
 import { dirname, relative, resolve } from 'pathe';
-import { satisfies } from 'semver';
+import { coerce, satisfies } from 'semver';
 import { dedent } from 'ts-dedent';
 
 import { type PostinstallOptions } from '../../../lib/cli-storybook/src/add';
@@ -50,17 +50,33 @@ export default async function postInstall(options: PostinstallOptions) {
       { last: getProjectRoot(), cwd: options.configDir }
     );
 
-  const vitestVersionSpecifier = await packageManager.getInstalledVersion('vitest');
+  const allDeps = packageManager.getAllDependencies();
+
+  // Determine Vitest version/range from installed or declared dependency to avoid pulling
+  // incompatible majors by default.
+  let vitestVersionSpecifier = await packageManager.getInstalledVersion('vitest');
+  if (!vitestVersionSpecifier && allDeps['vitest']) {
+    vitestVersionSpecifier = allDeps['vitest'];
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Coerce the version specifier to a version string
+   *
+   * This removed any version range specifiers like ^, ~, etc. which is needed to check with
+   * semver.satisfies.
+   */
+  vitestVersionSpecifier = coerce(vitestVersionSpecifier)?.version ?? null;
+
   logger.debug(`Vitest version specifier: ${vitestVersionSpecifier}`);
   const isVitest3_2To4 = vitestVersionSpecifier
     ? satisfies(vitestVersionSpecifier, '>=3.2.0 <4.0.0')
     : false;
+
   const isVitest4OrNewer = vitestVersionSpecifier
     ? satisfies(vitestVersionSpecifier, '>=4.0.0')
     : true;
 
   const info = await getStorybookInfo(options.configDir);
-  const allDeps = packageManager.getAllDependencies();
   // only install these dependencies if they are not already installed
 
   const addonVitestService = new AddonVitestService(packageManager);
diff --git a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
index bd5bd4b542d6..4e49df4a86b1 100644
--- a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
+++ b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/JsPackageManager.ts
@@ -631,6 +631,7 @@ export abstract class JsPackageManager {
       logger.debug(`Getting installed version for ${packageName}...`);
       const installations = await this.findInstallations([packageName]);
       if (!installations) {
+        logger.debug(`No installations found for ${packageName}`);
         // Cache the null result
         JsPackageManager.installedVersionCache.set(cacheKey, null);
         return null;
@@ -646,6 +647,7 @@ export abstract class JsPackageManager {
 
       return coercedVersion;
     } catch (e) {
+      logger.error(`Error getting installed version for ${packageName}: ${String(e)}`);
       JsPackageManager.installedVersionCache.set(cacheKey, null);
       return null;
     }
diff --git a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/NPMProxy.ts b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/NPMProxy.ts
index 83d40eb46717..475b51eeb14d 100644
--- a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/NPMProxy.ts
+++ b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/NPMProxy.ts
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ export class NPMProxy extends JsPackageManager {
       const parsedOutput = JSON.parse(commandResult);
 
       return this.mapDependencies(parsedOutput, pattern);
-    } catch (e) {
+    } catch {
       // when --depth is higher than 0, npm can return a non-zero exit code
       // in case the user's project has peer dependency issues. So we try again with no depth
       try {
@@ -153,10 +153,8 @@ export class NPMProxy extends JsPackageManager {
         const parsedOutput = JSON.parse(commandResult);
 
         return this.mapDependencies(parsedOutput, pattern);
-      } catch (err) {
-        logger.debug(
-          `An issue occurred while trying to find dependencies metadata using npm: ${err}`
-        );
+      } catch (e) {
+        logger.debug(`Error finding installations for ${pattern.join(', ')}: ${String(e)}`);
         return undefined;
       }
     }
diff --git a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/PNPMProxy.ts b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/PNPMProxy.ts
index b4c6119f0df8..7aba7c6d9e83 100644
--- a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/PNPMProxy.ts
+++ b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/PNPMProxy.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { existsSync, readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
 
-import { prompt } from 'storybook/internal/node-logger';
+import { logger, prompt } from 'storybook/internal/node-logger';
 import { FindPackageVersionsError } from 'storybook/internal/server-errors';
 
 import * as find from 'empathic/find';
@@ -113,9 +113,11 @@ export class PNPMProxy extends JsPackageManager {
 
   public async findInstallations(pattern: string[], { depth = 99 }: { depth?: number } = {}) {
     try {
+      const args = ['list', pattern.map((p) => `"${p}"`).join(' '), '--json', `--depth=${depth}`];
       const childProcess = await executeCommand({
         command: 'pnpm',
-        args: ['list', pattern.map((p) => `"${p}"`).join(' '), '--json', `--depth=${depth}`],
+        shell: true,
+        args,
         env: {
           FORCE_COLOR: 'false',
         },
@@ -126,6 +128,7 @@ export class PNPMProxy extends JsPackageManager {
       const parsedOutput = JSON.parse(commandResult);
       return this.mapDependencies(parsedOutput, pattern);
     } catch (e) {
+      logger.debug(`Error finding installations for ${pattern.join(', ')}: ${String(e)}`);
       return undefined;
     }
   }
diff --git a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn1Proxy.ts b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn1Proxy.ts
index 432b1a684d24..eb2f6218bd24 100644
--- a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn1Proxy.ts
+++ b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn1Proxy.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs';
 import { join } from 'node:path';
 import process from 'node:process';
 
-import { prompt } from 'storybook/internal/node-logger';
+import { logger, prompt } from 'storybook/internal/node-logger';
 import { FindPackageVersionsError } from 'storybook/internal/server-errors';
 
 import * as find from 'empathic/find';
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ export class Yarn1Proxy extends JsPackageManager {
       const process = executeCommand({
         command: 'yarn',
         args: yarnArgs.concat(pattern),
+        shell: true,
         env: {
           FORCE_COLOR: 'false',
         },
@@ -126,6 +127,7 @@ export class Yarn1Proxy extends JsPackageManager {
       const parsedOutput = JSON.parse(commandResult);
       return this.mapDependencies(parsedOutput, pattern);
     } catch (e) {
+      logger.debug(`Error finding installations for ${pattern.join(', ')}: ${String(e)}`);
       return undefined;
     }
   }
diff --git a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn2Proxy.ts b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn2Proxy.ts
index 71f09fedf3d7..6af73f4563c8 100644
--- a/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn2Proxy.ts
+++ b/code/core/src/common/js-package-manager/Yarn2Proxy.ts
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ export class Yarn2Proxy extends JsPackageManager {
 
       return this.mapDependencies(commandResult, pattern);
     } catch (e) {
+      logger.debug(`Error finding installations for ${pattern.join(', ')}: ${String(e)}`);
       return undefined;
     }
   }