From a PS1 I am trying to open a new Powershell window running a certain script; I am trying to open it as a COM object so that I can use SendKeys with it.
I tried this,
$newshell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell;
But this doesn't visibly do anything.
I tried making it visible with,
$newshell.Visible = $true, this throws an error that visible is not a property of newshell.
It works with other applications like Excel.
Thank you! I am new to Powershell.
Related
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.
Just need a little help with a Powershell Script.
I have a last messagebox on my script. what i want to accomplish is bring the messagebox in front of all the windows.
cmdlet that i use is
$end=[system.Windows.Forms.Messagebox]::Show('StartUP Tool Progress Completed!','StartUP Warning')
Alternatively, if all you need is a message box you can use the Wscript Shell:
$wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
$wshell.Popup("StartUP Tool Progress Completed",0,"Completed",0x0)
For more information: Popup Method
This is a WinForms question, more than a PowerShell question. You'll need to pass in Form.ActiveForm. Form.ActiveForm would give you the currently active form, even if you are raising your MessageBox from any other class.
However, I think you might want to look at Read-Host -AsSecureString or, more preferably, Get-Credential if the prompt is for confidential data.
Read-Host uncontrollably stops the script to prompt the user, which means that you can never have another script that includes the script that uses Read-Host.
Thankfully, PowerShell has a lot of built-in help for launching dialogs. You're trying to ask for parameters.
You should use the
[Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
attribute, and correct typing, to ask for the parameters. Read up on "params" if you haven't already.
If you use Parameter attribute on a [SecureString], it will prompt for a password field. If you use this on a Credential type, ([Management.Automation.PSCredential]), the credentials dialog will pop up, if the parameter isn't there. A string will just become a plain old text box. If you add a HelpMessage to the parameter attribute (that is, [Parameter(Mandatory = $true, HelpMessage = 'New User Credentials')]) then it will become help text for the prompt.
Finally, you can try this dirty trick, leveraging Microsoft Visual basic DLLs:
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic') | Out-Null
$computer = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox("Enter a computer name", "Computer", "$env:computername")
I am trying to use the invoke (ii) command to open an access database that has command line options. What I would like to have executed is below (yes there is a space in the name of the access database). The database is in the same folder as the Powershell script.
What I want: program name.accdb /cmd Rester
What I get: program name.accdb \cmd Rester
The exact commands I am using are:
$Path_To_EXE = "program name.accdb /cmd Rester"
&ii $Path_To_EXE
I am new to Powershell and have done some searching but can't seem to find an answer. I can create a work around by creating a separate .bat file but that seems like going backwards.
Thoughts?
You should also give a shot to the start-process cmdlet :
$Path_To_EXE = "c:\program.exe"
#Notice the simple quotes ...
$Arguments = #( "name.accdb", '/cmd' , "Rester" )
start-process -FilePath $Path_To_EXE -ArgumentList $Arguments -Wait
I'm not quite sure of the format of the answer you'll get tough ...
for database interaction, I'll rather use JGreenwell's Approach, since the answer that you'll get will be much easier to read/debug ...
Let me know if it works.
If you want to run a VBA script while passing it a parameter with powershell:
$aApp = New-Object -ComObject access.application
$aApp.Application.OpenCurrentDatabase("some program.accdb")
$aApp.Application.Run("VBAScriptName", [ref] "Raster")
First according to Microsoft Support you can use ;; for /cmd from the command line. Second because of the way call quotes and dequotes variables you have to include the /cmd flag separate from the variable (well, its the easiest way). Third, you might consider creating a new com-object to handle running Access with Powershell as it allows for a lot more options (just ask and I can add some examples of this). This being said try:
$Path_To_EXE = "program name.accdb"
&ii $Path_To_EXE ;;Rester #Try ;;"Rester" if it doesn't work.
#if that works then its a problem in Rester
#fyi another way is:
$Path_To_EXE = #("program name.accdb", ";;Rester")
&ii $Path_To_EXE
If you want to use an ActiveX Object Controller to open and perform operations on Access look at this blog from technet <- Read the link there are pitfalls to avoid.
$adOpenStatic = 3
$adLockOptimistic = 3
$objConnection = New-Object -com "ADODB.Connection"
$objRecordSet = New-Object -com "ADODB.Recordset"
$objConnection.Open("Provider = Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source = C:\Scripts\Test.mdb")
$objRecordset.Open("Select * From Computers", $objConnection,$adOpenStatic,$adLockOptimistic)
$objRecordSet.AddNew()
$objRecordSet.Fields.Item("ComputerName").Value = "atl-ws-001"
$objRecordSet.Fields.Item("SerialNumber").Value = "192ATG43R"
$objRecordSet.Update()
$objRecordSet.Close()
$objConnection.Close()
I have ps1 script to grab some information from the vmware cluster environment.
In some place of ps1 script requires the ENTER button keystroke.
So, How to do that ?
-Thanks
If I understand correctly, you want PowerShell to send the ENTER keystroke to some interactive application?
$wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell;
$wshell.AppActivate('title of the application window')
Sleep 1
$wshell.SendKeys('~')
If that interactive application is a PowerShell script, just use whatever is in the title bar of the PowerShell window as the argument to AppActivate (by default, the path to powershell.exe). To avoid ambiguity, you can have your script retitle its own window by using the title 'new window title' command.
A few notes:
The tilde (~) represents the ENTER keystroke. You can also use {ENTER}, though they're not identical - that's the keypad's ENTER key. A complete list is available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/aa202943%28v=office.10%29.aspx.
The reason for the Sleep 1 statement is to wait 1 second because it takes a moment for the window to activate, and if you invoke SendKeys immediately, it'll send the keys to the PowerShell window, or to nowhere.
Be aware that this can be tripped up, if you type anything or click the mouse during the second that it's waiting, preventing to window you activate with AppActivate from being active. You can experiment with reducing the amount of time to find the minimum that's reliably sufficient on your system (Sleep accepts decimals, so you could try .5 for half a second). I find that on my 2.6 GHz Core i7 Win7 laptop, anything less than .8 seconds has a significant failure rate. I use 1 second to be safe.
IMPORTANT WARNING: Be extra careful if you're using this method to send a password, because activating a different window between invoking AppActivate and invoking SendKeys will cause the password to be sent to that different window in plain text!
Sometimes wscript.shell's SendKeys method can be a little quirky, so if you run into problems, replace the fourth line above with this:
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait('~');
function Do-SendKeys {
param (
$SENDKEYS,
$WINDOWTITLE
)
$wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell;
IF ($WINDOWTITLE) {$wshell.AppActivate($WINDOWTITLE)}
Sleep 1
IF ($SENDKEYS) {$wshell.SendKeys($SENDKEYS)}
}
Do-SendKeys -WINDOWTITLE Print -SENDKEYS '{TAB}{TAB}'
Do-SendKeys -WINDOWTITLE Print
Do-SendKeys -SENDKEYS '%{f4}'
Send "Enter" key to an App, for example for pressing "OK". Works great:
Add-Type -AssemblyName microsoft.VisualBasic
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
# Get the desired process:
$ProcessName = Get-Process -Name Calculator
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
# If the process is actually running, bring it to front:
If ($ProcessName)
{
(New-Object -ComObject.Wscript.Shell).AppActivate((Get-Process $ProcessName -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).MainWindowTitle)
}
# Send "Enter" key to the app:
[Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate($ProcessName.ProcessName)
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait({'~'})
Also the $wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell; helped a script that was running in the background, it worked fine with just but adding $wshell. fixed it from running as background! [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate("App Name")
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.