Calling EXE file inside powershell file - powershell

Question

I've tried the following:
Start-Process "C:\Tool\alert.exe" -WindowStyle Hidden
when attempting to run this ps1 file inside powershell ise then I got the following the popup message.
The Publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software
my question is : how can I get rid of "The Publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software"?

Answer 1

This is due to a setting in Windows that flags .exe files as 'high-risk'. You can unblock them using the Unblock-File command before running the executable.
Get-ChildItem "C:\Tool\alert.exe" | Unblock-File
you can read more about it here: https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-unblock-files-downloaded-from-internet-in-windows-10/

Answer 2

1 - Running external executables is a well-documented use case directly from Microsoft.
2 - You must make sure the exe is not marked as from an untrusted source, meaning, you downloaded this from the internet and it is marked with the internet alternate data stream (ADS). You need to remove this stuff on internet-based downloads, using the cmdlet...
Unblock-File
... or open Windows Explorer, right-click, select properties, unblock. See the help files for details and examples.
'PowerShell running executables'
hit(s)
PowerShell: Running Executables
<#
5. The Call Operator &
Technet Jump
Why: Used to treat a string as a SINGLE command. Useful for dealing with spaces.
In PowerShell V2.0, if you are running 7z.exe (7-Zip.exe) or another command that starts with a number, you have to use the command invocation operator &.
The PowerShell V3.0 parser do it now smarter, in this case you don’t need the & anymore.
Details: Runs a command, script, or script block. The call operator, also known as the "invocation operator," lets you run commands that are stored in variables and represented by strings. Because the call operator does not parse the command, it cannot interpret command parameters
Example:
#>
& 'C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe' "c:\videos\my home video.avi" /fullscreen
Things can get tricky when an external command has a lot of parameters or there are spaces in the arguments or paths!
With spaces you have to nest Quotation marks and the result it is not always clear!
In this case it is better to separate everything like so:
$CMD = 'SuperApp.exe'
$arg1 = 'filename1'
$arg2 = '-someswitch'
$arg3 = 'C:\documents and settings\user\desktop\some other file.txt'
$arg4 = '-yetanotherswitch'
& $CMD $arg1 $arg2 $arg3 $arg4
# or same like that:
$AllArgs = #('filename1', '-someswitch', 'C:\documents and settings\user\desktop\some other file.txt', '-yetanotherswitch')
& 'SuperApp.exe' $AllArgs
<#
7. Start-Process (start/saps)
Technet Jump
Why: Starts a process and returns the .Net process object Jump if -PassThru is provided. It also allows you to control the environment in which the process is started (user profile, output redirection etc). You can also use the Verb parameter (right click on a file, that list of actions) so that you can, for example, play a wav file.
Details: Executes a program returning the process object of the application. Allows you to control the action on a file (verb mentioned above) and control the environment in which the app is run. You also have the ability to wait on the process to end. You can also subscribe to the processes Exited event.
Example:
#>
#starts a process, waits for it to finish and then checks the exit code.
$p = Start-Process ping -ArgumentList "invalidhost" -wait -NoNewWindow -PassThru
$p.HasExited
$p.ExitCode
#to find available Verbs use the following code.
$startExe = new-object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo -args PowerShell.exe
$startExe.verbs