I need a way to open a file in a Metro app from command line.
So far I've figured out how to start the app from command line without any third-party scripts
explorer shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader
but I haven't been able to figure out how to include a file name yet.
Launching
explorer shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader example.pdf
just opens up a default explorer window.
Any idea from Windows 8 experts on how to accomplish this without any third-party tools/cmdlets/etc.?
Note: In fact I'm using Windows 10 but I guess if there's a Windows 8 / 8.1 way to do it, it'll work for 10, too.
If you're still looking for the answer, the best way to open a file in a metro app is to use an execution string like a normal app protocol does. The execution string looks like this:
bingnews:[arguments, can be left blank.]
microsoftvideo:[arguments, can be left blank.]
netflix:[arguments, can be left blank.]
So, to start up netflix, it's as simple as typing in Start netflix: into the command line.
To find the execution string for an app, go here: Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations
More info and examples can be found here.
http://windowsitpro.com/windows-8/opening-windows-8-apps-command-prompt-or-script
http://www.itsjustwhatever.com/2012/10/28/launch-windows-8-metro-apps-from-a-desktop-shortcut-or-command-line/
PLEASE NOTE: To open an app WITHOUT A PROTOCOL (One not listed in the registry or under "Set Associations") use OP's method:
explorer shell:AppsFolder\[appuid]![appfullname]
The app UID is the folder name without the version number. For example,
4DF9E0F8.Netflix_2.11.0.8_x64__mcm4njqhnhss8
becomes
4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8
The app fullname is the [App author].[App name] For example, 4DF9E0F8.Netflix. 4DF9E0F8 is the author, and Netflix is the name.
Put it all together to get
explorer shell:AppsFolder\4DF9E0F8.Netflix_mcm4njqhnhss8!4DF9E0F8.Netflix
Store Apps can only be started by the shell. So try this:
explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App
Or from run (Win+R):
shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App
If the app is the default handler then you can just launch the file or protocol. There isn't a good in-box way to launch a file into a non-default handler from the command line.
Windows Store apps aren't designed to run from the command line and there isn't a straightforward way to launch them from the command line. Apps which handle specific files or protocols receive them through FileActivatedEventArgs or ProtocolActivatedEventArgs rather than command line arguments
You could write a launcher app which uses CLSID_ApplicationActivationManager's IApplicationActivationManager to ActivateForFile a specific app.
The best way I've found to pass command-line arguments to the executable targeted by the shell command is via the Windows start command.
Using your example, you would end up with this:
start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.Reader_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft.Reader example.pdf
I don't have Microsoft.Reader installed, so I can't test that. However, I can verify that this pattern works with Windows Terminal. In this case, I pass it a command-line argument to tell it which profile I want to open.
start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App new-tab -p "GitBash"
The first argument to the start command here — the empty string — is just the title of the window.
You can also pair this with cmd /c, which I've found is necessary for some launcher applications, such as my personal favorite, SlickRun:
cmd /c start "" shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App new-tab -p "GitBash"
I have a blog post with more info on running Modern apps from the command line, which you might find helpful in constructing these ridiculously obtuse commands.
Not sure if it works on Windows 8, but on Windows 10 I use this:
cmd /C start <app-name>:
For example, to start Slack:
cmd /C start slack:
Related
My question is whether it is possible to edit the crontab of a WSL2-based instance of Ubuntu with my Windows VSCode that is connected via WSL remote SSH.
If I type export EDITOR=code inside my WSL instance and then crontab -e, I am able to see a /tmp/crontab.sygFAU file load inside my VSCode instance.
The problem is that once I make edits to this file, it will save the file to /tmp/crontab.sysFAU but it doesn't actually take the next step of replacing the the real crontab file in /var/spool/cron/crontabs.
So once I re-open the crontab, it will just show what I had previously, and not my saved edits.
It would be nice to know if this is not possible or if there are any alternative ways to run a GUI editor because using nano is a pain!
An interesting question that I haven't considered before, myself. Here's what's happening:
You set your editor to code
You crontab -e, which properly loads VSCode with the temporary crontab.
However, because this is a Windows GUI application, it returns control to the parent Linux application (crontab) immediately after starting VSCode. You can see the same result if you just start notepad.exe from your shell in WSL -- Once Notepad starts (rather than exits) control is returned to the shell.
If you switch back to your terminal at this point, you'll see that crontab detected that the editor that it launched exited (returned), and so it has already tried to copy the temporary file to the permanent location.
However, since the temporary files doesn't yet have any changes, crontab decides there's nothing to do.
Editing the file in VSCode and saving it has no effect, other than to leave a dangling /tmp/... file hanging around (since crontab isn't there to clean up).
So what's the solution? We need a way to launch a Windows GUI application and prevent it from returning control to crontab until you are done editing.
I originally thought something from this question might work, but the problem is that the actual command that launches the Windows process is embedded in a shell script, which you can see with less "$(which code)" (or code "$(which code)"), but it's probably not a great idea to edit this.
So the next-best thing I came up with is a simple "wrapper" script around the (already-a-wrapper) code command. Create ~/.local/bin/code_no_fork.sh (could be anywhere) with:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
code $* > /dev/null
echo Press Spacebar to continue
read -r -s -d ' '
Credit: This answer for the Spacebar approach
Then:
EDITOR=~/.local/bin/code_no_fork crontab -e
After you make your edits in VSCode, simply press Space to allow the script to continue/exit, at which point crontab will (assuming no errors were detected) install the new Crontab.
Alternatives
This is should typically only be a problem with Windows GUI applications, so the other possible avenue is to simply use any Linux editor that doesn't fork. If you want a GUI editor, that's entirely possible as long as you are running a WSL release that includes WSLg support (now available for Windows 10 and 11).
I won't offer any individual editor suggestions since that would get into "opinion" and "software recommendation" territory, which is off-topic here.
yesterday I had SumatraPDF and VisualStudioCode with latex-workshop working with forward and reverse-search. Today the reverse-search didn't work any more. With a simple bat file I tried to show the commandline arguments.
echo %*
pause
They seemed correct and when I copied the command and paste it into a new cmd it works. To do further testing I tried to direct command and run it.
"C:\....\Code.exe" -g "%1:%2"
pause
Visual Studio Code responds: bad option -g
In SumatraPDF I set cmd as command.
Now the behavior is that I have two cmd windows. With the cmd directly opened the VSC open's the file. With the cmd launched indirect I got the error message.
I have tried resetting the environment variables, changing the current working directory, and checking the code page currently in use.
How can it be that cmd behaves differently with seemingly the same environment? And what can I do to make a cmd started from an application work like a cmd started by windows?
Update: It appears there were a couple of recent security changes in the way VSCODE.exe is allowed to interact with the command line (especially affecting LaTeX-workshop users) so for recent changes twice this year see the discussion at https://forum.sumatrapdfreader.org/t/inverse-search-not-performed-for-vs-code-exe/4486/27
Within SumatraPDF the reverse syntex command for %1 is replaced by %f for file and (l)L for line
It is triggered by a double click near the line of interest and if the synctex index file was compiled correctly by PdfLaTeX (or similar) it will include the tex %f(ilename) and the nearest %l(ine) reference to the point where double clicked.
Thus your tex syctex enhanced "reverse search" call out of SumatraPDF should historically be
"C:\...path to...\Code.exe" -g "%f:%l"
that's Lower L not 1
Avoid using any depreciated -inverse-search parameter from a LaTeX editor just add it once into SumatraPDF-settings.txt and then it's not disturbed by repeated assignments when running your -forward-search.
It will NOT work if the file.synctex or file.synctex.gz is corrupt by a bad PDF compilation.
HOWEVER It seem Microsoft have added the requirement to add a CLI.js handler and requires another switch setting after that ! (see link to discussion in Update above)
For a small test file download https://github.com/GitHubRulesOK/MyNotes/raw/master/AppNotes/SumatraPDF/LATeX%20and%20Reverse-Search.zip unpack and open sync.pdf in SumatraPDF to test that double click on page opens sync.tex in the editor
If the message is cannot start ... then the command line is not configured correctly. A rough test for a bad synctex is to see what happens if the call is changed by adding cmd /k echo to the start, since that will confirm the reverse command. Here I wrote "wrong" as the path to code.exe, once corrected I can remove cmd /k echo.
For some other systems where the reverse might change
see https://github.com/sumatrapdfreader/sumatrapdf/issues/1197#
However there should be no interference in a valid VsCode call.
Am attempting to run installer using command line using -c option.
Command line execution appears like this:
E:\dev>MyApp_32.exe -c
E:\dev>This will install App on your computer.
OK [o, Enter], Cancel [c]
E:\dev> (showing the Windows command line is confusing to user)
Welcome .. (text of 2nd screen)
Typing "c" or "Cancel" doesn't work. It always takes enter key as input and proceeds to next screen.
Pressing enter transfers control back to windows's command shell, then back to installer. This looks confusing to user. It doesn't give a unified experience to user.
Is it possible to provide input via a silent file ? i.e. a text file with pre-selected inputs?
Am using 32 bit installer on Win 7 Professional x64 with Java 1.6 installed.
The problem is that the installer is a GUI application, it cannot take control of a WIndows terminal in this way. If you start it via
start /wait MyApp_32.exe -c
the command line prompts will not be displayed.
You can run set a response file with the -varfile argument, see the help for more information.
I have Windows mobile 6. I have installed Cre-ME+, and command line. In the command line we need to type the following command and execute it, to load Oracle Mobile Application:
\Windows\CrEme\bin\CrEme.exe -Of -classpath \Windows\CrEme\lib\AWTclasses.zip;\XONTMWA\lib\j4205328.zip oracle.apps.mwa.awt.client.StartGUI
However, Windows Mobile does not support the bat/cmd file execution, so what would be a equivalent way of starting the Oracle Mobile Application, without having to type the command every time?
Create a shortcut with the command line, either via API or with your favorite text editor.
The contents would look like this (if my character count is right anyway):
139#\Windows\CrEme\bin\CrEme.exe -Of -classpath \Windows\CrEme\lib\AWTclasses.zip;\XONTMWA\lib\j4205328.zip oracle.apps.mwa.awt.client.StartGUI
I need to build a test bench by sending appropriate inputs to an application. However,
once I launch the application, it takes control and does not return to the command
prompt (unless an exit command is executed from the application). In that case
is there any technique by which I can send a command to that application from the Perl
script and interpret the output from that application?
My operating system is Windows.
If it's a GUI application, take a look at the Win32::GuiTest module. It sends events to GUI applications - simulating user input.
For a command line application, I would normally recommend the Expect module. Unfortunately, Expect doesn't work under Windows.
If there is anyway to write or redirect the application output to a file, you can always open that file to process/interpret the output. If you are talking about a command-line application, it should be easy to redirect the terminal output to a file using the '>' and '>>' characters. It may not be as easy with a GUI app, though.