In my script, I start a third-party non-GUI application. I'm sort of trying to run this embedded in my script itself, so I will be able to change the icon and the windows caption.
I have two restriction:
I have to use & 'application.exe' to start the application. I tested Start-Process -NoNewWindow, but that breaks the functionality of application.exe.
The application.exe needs to be running in my script. I can only change the icon when I compile my script with PS1 to Exe afterwards.
The challenge I'm now facing is related to the first restriction. I need to change the caption a-synchronously. The $host.ui.RawUI.WindowTitle = “New Title” is not working, because application.exe changes the caption right after execution. So I need to change it by using functions like SetWindowText(). This is working in VB.NET, but I'm looking for a way to start this function in parallel with the & 'application.exe'. When I use &, the application is executed and the script waits until it terminates. So I need to do the SetWindowText() in parallel.
Visual Basic/C has a BackgroundWorker functions for such cases. Is something like that also available in PowerShell?
Thanks for any help in advance!
Kind regards,
Eric
Everybody thank you very much for your help!
The solution proved to be a lot easier that I thought. You don't have to keep on renaming the window. You just have to start the cmd window, wait a bit (in the background it's doing something with conhost.exe) and then rename it once. Here's the code I used:
$titletext = "My New CMD Window Title"
# Start a thread job to change the window title to $titletext
$null = Start-ThreadJob { param( $rawUI, $windowTitle )
Start-Sleep -s 2 #Wait until cmd.exe is started
if ( $rawUI.WindowTitle -ne $windowTitle ) {
$rawUI.WindowTitle = $windowTitle
}
} -ArgumentList $host.ui.RawUI, $titletext
& 'c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe'
Kind regards,
Eric
Related
I have a VB application, which starts several instances of a third party non-GUI application. To keep track of these multiple instances, I update their title, using the SetWindowText() function. This application however has the nasty habit of continuously updating the title, so each SetWindowText works only temporary. As soon as you click anywhere in the screen, the tile is changed back.
I found a way to update the title through PowerShell, using the following code:
$titletext = "My Title"
# Start a thread job to change the window title to $titletext
$null = Start-ThreadJob { param( $rawUI, $windowTitle )
Start-Sleep -s 2
if ( $rawUI.WindowTitle -ne $windowTitle ) {
$rawUI.WindowTitle = $windowTitle
}
}-ArgumentList $host.ui.RawUI, $titletext
& 'c:\Program Files\Application\Application.exe' '-id=userid -pass=password'
This works perfectly and the title change is permanent, so exactly what I want. The only problem is that everything is being logged in the Windows PowerShell log, including the parameters -id= and -pass=.
A solution would be if I can start application.exe through my VB application and do the rename through a PowerShell script, but I don't know if that is possible through a ThreadJob.
Is it possible to start a ThreadJob and rename another window, maybe through it's handle?
Changing the console title from inside that console is your best bet, which is what your PowerShell code does.
While it is possible to call the SetWindowText() API function to set another process' console-window title, this change isn't guaranteed to stay in effect, because any subsequent interaction with such a window causes the original window title to be restored (this behavior seems to be built into conhost.exe, the console host underlying regular console windows on Windows).
By contrast, setting the title of the console window associated with the current process, does stay in effect (unless overridden again later), which is what the SetConsoleWindow() WinAPI function does (which shell- and API-based mechanisms such as title in cmd.exe, and [Console]::Title / $hostUI.RawUI.WindowTitle in PowerShell presumably ultimately call).
Therefore, stick with your PowerShell approach and avoid the password-logging problem with the help of an environment variable, as detailed below.
Windows PowerShell's script-block logging - see about_Logging - logs the source code of code being created.
You can avoid argument values from being logged if you - instead of providing literal arguments - provide them indirectly, via variables that you set from outside PowerShell.
Therefore:
Make your VB.NET application (temporarily) set an environment variable that contains the password. (Perhaps needless to say, storing and passing plain-text passwords is best avoided).
In your PowerShell script, refer to that environment variable instead of passing a literal password - that way, the actual password will not be shown in the logs.
For example, assuming that your VB.NET application has created environment variable MYPWD containing the password, before launching the PowerShell script:
$titletext = "My Title"
# Start a thread job to change the window title to $titletext
$null = Start-ThreadJob { param( $rawUI, $windowTitle )
Start-Sleep -s 2
if ( $rawUI.WindowTitle -ne $windowTitle ) {
$rawUI.WindowTitle = $windowTitle
}
} -ArgumentList $host.ui.RawUI, $titletext
# Note:
# * Assumes that your VB.NET application has set env. var. "MYPWD".
# * The arguments must be passed *individually*, not inside a single string.
& 'c:\Program Files\Application\Application.exe' -id=userid "-pass=$env:MYPWD"
I'm working on a dual pc stream setup and would like to use my elgato stream deck on my gaming pc for some specific functions. The only problem is, no obs control. I was combing through reddit and came across the suggestion to use SendKeys in powershell scripts to perform hotkey functions. I am able to connect the two computers through PSSession and run my script, but nothing happens. I have the application focused. Even when I just open a text file and run the script, nothing comes up. I don't really think this should be that hard should it? Any help would be appreciated.
$wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell; $wshell.SendKeys(']')
Continuing from my comment...
Sendkeys is a thing but can be really finicky, focus, timing issues, etc. GUI automation is not really PowerShell's strong suit. Custom tools like AutoIT, Selenium, etc., are better options.
With Sendkeys, you often must set delays to ensure focus before calling keystrokes.
YOu can also avoid the use of ...
New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell
... and use this...
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
Here are a few examples you can try.
# pops the WinKey Start Menu
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait('^{ESC}')
Or this way...
# Initialize a variable with the .Net namespace, then use it.
$SendKeys = [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]
$SendKeys::SendWait('^{ESC}')
# SendKeys to hold down keys
$SendKeys::SendWait('q(+%) + (+)q')
# Send commnad results to notepad - Note the sleep to wait for notepad to open, paste the content then select the file menu
Get-NetIPConfiguration | clip | notepad
Sleep -Seconds 1
$SendKeys::SendWait('^V')
Sleep -Seconds 2
$SendKeys::SendWait('%F')
Update as per our comments below:
SendKeys requires a GUI up and running. A GUI requires a logged-on, interactive user.
I'm trying to run a program that will web scrape from Pastebin using PowerShell. I used the following code to do so:
Set Wshell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Wshell.Run "%ComSpec% /c powershell & $result = Invoke-WebRequest
""https://pastebin.com/raw/wAhYB4UY"" & $result.content ", 0, True
$result.content will bring up everything I need from Pastebin. How can I transfer $result.content to a VBScript variable?
I know this is possible using the Exec() method as demonstrated here, but I can't use it because I want my code to stay hidden, which to my knowledge is not possible with Exec() (without having a window popping and closing)
I also don't want to use File I/O in Powershell because that can really complicate other things I want my program to do in the future; however, If absolutely no options are available, then I can use it.
EDIT: Some readers pointed out that my script only consists of running Powershell, so why not program my script in PowerShell? Well, not everything I am planning for this script to do can be done in PS. for example, I want my script to type some stuff outside of PS. I also want to wait until the user has pressed a certain key, in my case PrtSc (which will create a popup a message using MsgBox).
$Path = 'https://pastebin.com/raw/etc'
$Raw = Invoke-WebRequest $Path
$Raw.Content
What do you want to do with the data that using VBScript is the preferable tool?
I'm looking to create a hotkey on F10 that will, when pressed, open a text file named Notes. That is the simple part, it is:
C:\Users\Matt\Notes.txt
But I also want another press of the same hotkey to save the file and exit.
I am only interested in the script, I can run powershell through hotkeys.
Firing off an editor from script is as simple as:
$proc = Start-Process -FilePath C:\Bin\Notepad++.exe -arg C:\Users\Matt\Notes.txt -PassThru
The trickier part is figuring out how to save & close the file. If the editor happens to have a COM object model, you could use that but I doubt your editor is Word. :-)
Another general approach is to use WinForms SendKeys functionality. However an even better approach is to use the Windows UI Automation framework to drive the UI of arbitrary apps. There's even a PowerShell module that wraps this API to make it easy to use from PowerShell. It is called UIAutomation. Here is an example of how it is used:
Start-Process calc -PassThru | Get-UIAWindow |
Get-UIAButton -Name [1-3] | Invoke-UIAButtonClick;
You would substitute $proc for the Start-Process calc -PassThru bit above.
I am trying to generate a shortcut for every printer I have on a print server. The idea is to be able to email these shortcuts to people and when they click on them, it automatically installs that printer for them.
I've populated an array from a list of printer names exported from the print server:
$list = #((get-contnet $home\dekstop\plist.txt))
I then created a method to create a shortcut:
function Make-Shortcut
{
param ([string]$dest, [string]$source)
$WshShell = New-Object -comObject Wscript.Shell
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut($dest)
$Shortcut.TargetPath = $Source
$Shortcut.Save()
}
The function works fine. I was able to create standard shortcuts with no problem.
This next part is where I am getting stuck:
foreach ($i in $list)
{
Make-Shortcut "C:\pshort\$i.lnk" "C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe
printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /q /n\\printserver\$i"
}
When this runs, it does generate a shortcut with the same name as the printer for each printer on the list. However, the problem comes in at the target path. Instead of
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /q /n\\printserver\printername
it changes it to:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry \in \q \n\printserver\printername
The three problems with this are:
It is reversing the forward slash for the parameters
It is removing one of the backslashes preceding the server name
It is adding quotes to both sides. I need the quotes to come off for the shortcut to work properly.
I assume this is happening because Powershell thinks I am trying to make a standard shortcut and thinks I made mistakes while typing out the path.
I have tried putting a ` in front of each forward slash hoping the escape character would prevent it from reversing it, but no luck. I also tried using a hyphen for each parameter but that did not work either.
Is there anyway to stop this from happening? Or is there perhaps a better way to try to accomplish what I am trying to do?
You need to add arguments to the com object
Try adding a new param $arguments to your Make-Shortcut function and do:
Make-Shortcut "C:\pshort\$i.lnk" "C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe"
"printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /q /n\\printserver\$i"
add this in your function:
$Shortcut.Arguments = $arguments
So the link is created successfully ... but I have no idea if it works :)
Completely different answer but in a standard windows environment simply clicking a hyperlink to \printserver\printer will add a shared printer to someone's system?
So an email that simply lists :
\\PrintServer\Printer01
\\PrintServer\Printer02
\\PrintServer\Printer03
Would probably do the job just as well.