powershell "user32" does not exist in current context, using dllImport - powershell

Question

I'm trying to create a shortcut to start a powershell command hidden.
I'm using this code i found on Stack Overflow :
$t = '[DllImport("user32.dll")] public static extern bool ShowWindow(int handle, int state);';add-type -name win -member $t -namespace native;[native.win]::ShowWindow(([System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetCurrentProcess() | Get-Process).MainWindowHandle, 0);
When i'm executing it from powershell command line everything works fine. But when i try to execute it from my shortcut which target : %windir%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
I got an error
add-type : c:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\ruaml1si.0.cs(8) : Name 'user32' does not exist in current context
c:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\ruaml1si.0.cs(7) : {
c:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\ruaml1si.0.cs(8): >>> [DllImport(user32.dll)] public static extern bool
ShowWindow(int handle, int state);
c:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\ruaml1si.0.cs(9) :
If someone could help me i would be very glad . Thanks you.

Answer 1

You need to add an EntryPoint while importing the dll:
$t = '[DllImport("user32.dll",EntryPoint="ShowWindow")] public static extern bool ShowWindow(int handle, int state);';add-type -name win -member $t -namespace native;[native.win]::ShowWindow(([System.Diagnostics.Process]::GetCurrentProcess() | Get-Process).MainWindowHandle, 0);

Answer 2

Off-topic note: As far as I could test, it seems that there is the 260 characters limit for a shortcut's target length (if originated via New»Shortcut from the right-click drop-down menu). Apparently, your string exceeds this limit…
However, the issue in question could be fixed if you apply appropriate rules for escaping inner (nested) double-quotes. For instance:
echo "here $PWD" will work if executed from an open powershell window but its equivalent is:
powershell.exe -noexit -command "echo ""here $PWD""" as target string of a windows shortcut (note that -noexit is here merely to see the output), and
powershell.exe -command "echo """"here $PWD""""" as command run from an open cmd window,
and so on…

Answer 3

If we talk about the hidden launch of powershell from a shortcut, then this is not a problem.
C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe vbscript:Execute("CreateObject(""WScript.Shell"").Run ""powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass & 'C:\You\Best\Program\Path.ps1' """"Par1"""" """"Par2"""""",0,false:close")
But the user32.dll library is needed for other purposes as well, and I also cannot run it when calling powershell from the Bat file.
Addition. The issue has been resolved. :)
It happened when I called "user32.dll" using "usebackq" from the batch file. After looking at the unescaped code in powershell, it turned out that there were no double quotes around user32.dll name. Preliminary duplication of quotes in the batch file - solved the problem.
It's always tricky to check for quotes in file shortcuts. You should check again for their presence directly in this place.
Addition. This is the answer to your question:
%windir%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell -noexit -c add-type -m '[DllImport(""""user32.dll"""")] public static extern bool ShowWindow(int handle,int state);' -namespace n -name w;[n.w]::ShowWindow((Get-Process -Id $PID).MainWindowHandle,0);Echo OK
But this Windows call line actually doesn't make any sense. There remains 1 free character out of 260 in the self-closing Powershell call line is clearly not enough for any tasks :)
Although, maybe the meaning of such a solution is only have place to be when we writing Powershell code in Batch files and then launching it from Batch. In this case, we do not have a hard limit of 260 characters. This will avoid the unnecessary, sometimes unsolvable, task of commenting out service symbols.
Obviously, the Powershell hidden open solution using Batch + js / vbs is much more efficient in shortcuts.