Powershell script - Start-Job & MSIEXEC - powershell

Question

I wonder if you can help please? I have the need to write a Powershell script to execute an MSI script.
I also need to set a time out on the process (as the MSIs we're given sometimes hang).
I've seen that you can acheive this by using the Start-Job/ Wait-Job process
Obviously the code below in in a severe state of butchery currently
Thanks in advance
$timeoutSeconds = 20
$uninstall32 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "My File" } | select UninstallString$uninstall64 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "Vix.Cbe.SalesTransaction" } | select UninstallString
Echo "uninstall32 :" $uninstall32
if ($uninstall32) {
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.Trim()
$32p = #("/X", "$uninstall32", "/b")
}
Echo "uninstall32 :" $uninstall32
Echo "u32 :" $32p
$32j = Start-Job msiexec -ArgumentList $32p
if (Wait-Job $32j -Timeout $timeoutSeconds) { Receive-Process $32j }
Remove-Process -force $32j

Answer 1

You don't have to mess with jobs to do that. Here is the easy way:
start Notepad -PassThru | select -ExpandProperty id | set id
sleep 60
kill $id -ea 0
This might not work if app spawns another app and exits as the Id will be wrong. In that case you will probably have to hunt it in the process list or via cmd line params.

Answer 2

Thanks to majkinetor I managed to alter the code sufficiently to acheive my goal.
The only thing is that obviously whether the process is still actively uninstalling or not, its killed after the TOSecs value.
This should be good enough for what I need.
So to explain for anyone else looking for a similar solution:
This process checks both 32 bit and 64 bit Registry entries for an MSI similar to the ServiceName (Urbancode Deploy parameter is the '${p:ServiceName}' passed to the script at runtime)
If it finds an entry it'll execute the uninstall code for the specific 32/64 MSI
/x = Uninstall
$uninstall64/32 = GUID of the Uninstall part to the MSI
/nq = quiet uninstall with no GUI (infact in isolation testing you get a Yes/No dialogue)
The uninstall will run for the amount of seconds that you set in $TOSecs
Hope this helps someone else
$TOSecs = 30
$uninstall32 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "'${p:ServiceName}'" } | select UninstallString
$uninstall64 = gci "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" | foreach { gp $_.PSPath } | ? { $_ -match "'${p:ServiceName}'" } | select UninstallString
if ($uninstall64) {
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall64 = $uninstall64.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling 64bit " '${p:ServiceName}'
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall64 /nq" -PassThru |
select -ExpandProperty id | set id
#Echo "proc id = "$id
sleep $TOSecs
kill $id -ea 0
}
if ($uninstall32) {
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.UninstallString -Replace "msiexec.exe","" -Replace "/I","" -Replace "/X",""
$uninstall32 = $uninstall32.Trim()
Write "Uninstalling 32bit " '${p:ServiceName}'
start-process "msiexec.exe" -arg "/X $uninstall32 /nq" -PassThru |
select -ExpandProperty id | set id
#Echo "proc id = "$id
sleep $TOSecs
kill $id -ea 0
}