I am having a bunch of issues with getting a PowerShell command to run. All it is doing is running a command that would be run in a CMD prompt window.
Here is the command:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386\CmRcViewer.exe" PCNAME
I have tried the following with no success (I have tried many iterations of this to try and get one that works. Syntax is probably all screwed up):
$TEXT = $textbox.Text #$textbox is where the user enters the PC name.
$CMDCOMMAND = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386\CmRcViewer.exe"
Start-Process '"$CMDCOMMAND" $TEXT'
#iex -Command ('"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386\CmRcViewer.exe"' $TEXT)
The command will just open SCCM remote connection window to the computer the user specifies in the text box.
Try this:
& "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminConsole\bin\i386\CmRcViewer.exe" PCNAME
To PowerShell a string "..." is just a string and PowerShell evaluates it by echoing it to the screen. To get PowerShell to execute the command whose name is in a string, you use the call operator &.
To run or convert batch files externally from PowerShell (particularly if you wish to sign all your scheduled task scripts with a certificate) I simply create a PowerShell script, e.g. deletefolders.ps1.
Input the following into the script:
cmd.exe /c "rd /s /q C:\#TEMP\test1"
cmd.exe /c "rd /s /q C:\#TEMP\test2"
cmd.exe /c "rd /s /q C:\#TEMP\test3"
*Each command needs to be put on a new line calling cmd.exe again.
This script can now be signed and run from PowerShell outputting the commands to command prompt / cmd directly.
It is a much safer way than running batch files!
One solution would be to pipe your command from PowerShell to CMD. Running the following command will pipe the notepad.exe command over to CMD, which will then open the Notepad application.
PS C:\> "notepad.exe" | cmd
Once the command has run in CMD, you will be returned to a PowerShell prompt, and can continue running your PowerShell script.
Edits
CMD's Startup Message is Shown
As mklement0 points out, this method shows CMD's startup message. If you were to copy the output using the method above into another terminal, the startup message will be copied along with it.
For those who may need this info:
I figured out that you can pretty much run a command that's in your PATH from a PS script, and it should work.
Sometimes you may have to pre-launch this command with cmd.exe /c
Examples
Calling git from a PS script
I had to repackage a git client wrapped in Chocolatey (for those who may not know, it's a package manager for Windows) which massively uses PS scripts.
I found out that, once git is in the PATH, commands like
$ca_bundle = git config --get http.sslCAInfo
will store the location of git crt file in $ca_bundle variable.
Looking for an App
Another example that is a combination of the present SO post and this SO post is the use of where command
$java_exe = cmd.exe /c where java
will store the location of java.exe file in $java_exe variable.
You must use the Invoke-Command cmdlet to launch this external program. Normally it works without an effort.
If you need more than one command you should use the Invoke-Expression cmdlet with the -scriptblock option.
Related
I am trying to run an executable through powershell to run headless, to install a program onto a VM/LocalHost machine. I can get the wizard to open, but for whatever reason I cannot get it to run headless. Here is the cmd line that I run that works:
start /WAIT setup.exe /clone_wait /S /v" /qn"
This is my attempts in powershell
Start-Process .\setup.exe /S -Wait -PassThru
Start-Process .\setup.exe /S /v /qn -Wait -PassThru
Start-Process setup.exe -ArgumentList '/clone_wait /S /v /qn' -Wait
In the cmd line instance the application installs without issue - in the powershell instance the wizard opens and is on the first "Next" prompt. Any help would be appreciated!
I also attempted to add the additional parameters "/v" and "/qn" which return an error : Start-Process : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/v'
The bottom attempt runs but it's not waiting for the installation to complete
You may be overthinking it. Remember that PowerShell is a shell. One of the purposes of a shell is to run commands that you type.
Thus: You don't need Start-Process. Just type the command to run and press Enter.
PS C:\> .\setup.exe /clone_wait /S /v /qn
Now if the executable (or script) you want to run contains spaces in the path or name, then use the call/invocation operator (&) and specify the quotes; for example:
PS C:\> & "\package files\setup.exe" /clone_wait /S /v /qn
(This behavior is the same no matter whether you are at the PowerShell prompt or if you put the command in a script.)
This worked for me. You need to quote the whole argumentlist, plus embed double quotes to pass what you want to /v.
start-process -wait SetupStata16.exe -ArgumentList '/s /v"/qb ADDLOCAL=core,StataMP64"'
Running the command normally and then using wait-process after might be a simpler alternative, if you're sure there's only one process with that name:
notepad
wait-process notepad
To follow-up to all that you have been given thus far. Running executables via PowerShell is a well-documented use case.
PowerShell: Running Executables
Solve Problems with External Command Lines in PowerShell
Top 5 tips for running external commands in Powershell
Using Windows PowerShell to run old command-line tools (and their
weirdest parameters)
So, from the first link provides more validation of what you've been given.
5. The Call Operator &
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
6. cmd /c - Using the old cmd shell
** This method should no longer be used with V3
Why: Bypasses PowerShell and runs the command from a cmd shell. Often times used with a DIR which runs faster in the cmd shell than in PowerShell (NOTE: This was an issue with PowerShell v2 and its use of .Net 2.0, this is not an issue with V3).
Details: Opens a CMD prompt from within powershell and then executes the command and returns the text of that command. The /c tells CMD that it should terminate after the command has completed. There is little to no reason to use this with V3.
Example:
#runs DIR from a cmd shell, DIR in PowerShell is an alias to GCI. This will return the directory listing as a string but returns much faster than a GCI
cmd /c dir c:\windows
7. Start-Process (start/saps)
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
I have a command in my script.ps1 which is run by a next build step in tfs 2015. I then navigate to the location of office, run the command to force a KMS push like this:
cmd.exe dir "C:\apps\MSOffice\Office15\"
cmd.exe "cscript ospp.vbs /act"
It gets executed but then it just hangs and nothing happens. If I execute the command by hand it works without problems.
This only occurs if I do it through powershell - running the command by hand works as intended.
thanks Micky!, /C helped me debugging.
solution is like this:
cmd.exe /c "cd C:\apps\MSOffice\Office15\"
cmd.exe /c "cscript.exe C:\apps\MSOffice\Office15\ospp.vbs /act"
need to execute the script VB handler separately from the VB script.
BTW: the reason why im doing this is because i have a build task that will execute this upon 20 build machines simultaneously.
Not sure why you would call CMD from PowerShell to execute commands that PowerShell can execute directly.
Anyway
Use /C to return when the command is performed
cmd.exe /C dir "C:\apps\MSOffice\Office15\"
cmd.exe /C "cscript ospp.vbs /act"
I am very new to powershell and sometimes this question may be so simple
Can please anybody please tell me what is the equivalent to the following(vbscript) in PowerShell
set obj = wscript.createobject( wscript.shell )
Obj.Run $smCmnd
What is the use of wscript.shell.
After a bit of search I found first line can be presented as;
$obj = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
But have have no idea how to call Run method ($obj.run(...)???)
If I run cmd.exe with some commands as the smCmnd, How can I keep cmd.exe without close and to run another command later in same console??
EDIT
I am writing PS script and it will be call from another application. Basically it will do some folder creations and file coping etc. I would like to open CMD.exe and show all the commands running on that. How to use same cmd prompt through out my whole script.
Is smCmnd a string of shell commands? If so, you can call them directly from PowerShell, without trying to get a wscript.shell COM object to run them against like you'd need to do in VBScript.
VBScript wasn't a shell. Powershell is. You can write shell commands directly in .ps1 or .ps2 files, just like in a batch file.
I'm not a powershell expert here, but try doing
& $smCmnd
Try running $smCmnd directly. If that fails, use Invoke-Expression $smCmnd.
If you do need to use CMD.EXE (possibly because you want to run pre-existing BAT file), and you want all of the output in a single CMD window you can pipe all the input into cmd at once like this:
# Powershell script to execute existing BAT file
cmd.exe /k "cd c:\batchfiles & firstone.bat & second.bat & echo that's all folks"
# CMD will remain open (/k). User will have to type exit to return to powershell
# Or if you want user just to hit any key to leave CMD prompt:
cmd.exe /c "c:\batchfiles\mybatchfile.bat & pause"
# /C means CMD should close after is has executed the commands on the command line
However if you want to have something execute in CMD, then make a decision in your Powershell script about what to execute next in CMD then do something similar to the answer at the following link which pipes input and output between a powershell script and CMD.exe.
How to run interactive commands in another application window from powershell
I am creating a standard windows BAT/CMD file and I want to make an IF statement to check whether or not this CMD file is run from PowerShell. How can I do that?
Edit: My underlying problem was that test.cmd "A=B" results in %1==A=B when run from CMD but %1==A and %2==B when run from PowerShell. The script itself is actually run as an old Windows Command line script in both cases, so checking for Get-ChildItem will always yield an error.
One way, it to see what your process name is, and then check its attributes:
title=test
tasklist /v /fo csv | findstr /i "test"
As long as you use a unique name in place of Test, there should be little room for error.
You will get back something like:
"cmd.exe","15144","Console","1","3,284
K","Running","GNCID6101\Athomsfere","0:00:00","test"
When I ran the above code from a bat file, my output was:
"powershell.exe","7396","Console","1","50,972
K","Running","GNCID6101\Athomsfere","0:00:00","
A potentially simpler approach that may work for you. If not, it may be suitable for others.
Create 2 separate script files: test.ps1 and test.cmd
Don't include extension when calling the script. I.e. call as <path>\test (or just test if folder is in the path environment variable.
This works because CMD prioritises which script to execute as: .bat > .cmd, whereas Powershell prioritises: .ps1 > .bat > .cmd.
The following is the output of a CMD session:
C:\Temp>copy con test.cmd
#echo cmd^Z
1 file(s) copied.
C:\Temp>copy con test.ps1
Write-Output "ps1"^Z
1 file(s) copied.
C:\Temp>.\test
cmd
C:\Temp>
And calling test from Powershell:
PS C:\Temp> .\test
ps1
PS C:\Temp>
Couldn't you try to execute a Get-ChildItem and then check %ERRORLEVEL% to see if it returns an exe not found?
http://ss64.com/nt/errorlevel.html
I read some file using PowerShell, and change current dir accordingly, but all I can do is change the current PowerShell's current dir, not the caller's dir (the cmd.exe environment that called that ps1 file). Things I tried:
powershell ch-dir.ps1 | cd
(won't work, obviously, since CD is internal command)
powershell cd $myDir
(changes current dir in PowerShell, but when script exits, the cmd environment still in original dir)
I really hope I won't need to find the script's caller process (the cmd), and make a change in it's cur-dir by-force... (or even worse - to save the dir I want in some env-var and then cd %my_var% since it would require two lines of command)
I'm not sure if this meets your needs, but if you set it up so that the only output from your powershell script is your desired new working directory, you could do this:
c:\>for /F %i IN ('powershell -noprofile -command "write-output 'c:\users'" ') DO #cd %i
c:\Users>
The cmd prompt is hosting your powershell session, unless you can figure out a way to return an exit code to the prompt that will (on exit code 99999) change directory to (predefined values, switch?). As far as powershell is concerned they're different processes.
Heres a good example for you to try:
Open a cmd prompt.
Open task manager, find cmd.exe
In your cmd prompt type Powershell
View powershell as a different process (check the PID.)
End the powershell process. Watch what happens.
Alternatively, if you need something run from cmd in a specific directory based on logic in your powershell script, you can invoke it with a cmd /c from within Powershell.