I'm trying to execute a Word macro from a batch file. The documentation here indicates that this is accomplished using the /mMacroname switch.
However, when I do this, I receive an "Invalid switch - /mMacroname" error. It seems I'm doing something wrong, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.
The name of the macro is FormatStrikethrough. It opens/closes/etc. the file on its own. I am invoking it like so:
start "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\winword.exe" /mFormatStrikethrough
Dropping the start from the command will make it work.
I believe this is because your parameters were being passed to start rather than the winword executable. As for how to use start to launch a program with switches,
This answer seems to tell you how to do that.
Related
This question is similar to most about ShellExecute, with one exception: I want to use ShellExecute because it's simple to use and it can be called with a few lines from within many programming languages including the now sunsetted Visual FoxPro.
Most existing solutions rely on doing stuff with threads, looking for processes (not reliable if it's a common process name) or ShellExecuteEx which is much more complicated to use. I was not satisfied with other solutions out there.
The issue is that I have a file operation that takes a few seconds to complete: unzipping an archive. How do I know that I am done?
The solution is to create a semaphore from within the command being executed. This can be done by running a batch file, but if that is not desired, there is another way to handle it with a one-liner using cmd.exe:
ShellExecute(0, 'open', 'cmd.exe', '/c 7z.exe e Invoices.zip | find "Everything is Ok" > semaphore.txt', workingDirectory, 1)
This one-liner uses CMD to pipe the output of 7zip to Find, which looks for the line of text that indicates completion. Of course, this fails if there's an error.
If you don't have output you to wait for (for piping into FIND), you can use & echo thusly:
... & echo > semaphore.txt
This waits until ... is done, then echos a newline to semaphore.txt.
At the end, you'll have a semaphore.txt file inside your working directory. All you have to do is look for this file to appear, and you know that execution is done. Delete this file and continue with your program.
I am running into a bit of a problem when attempting to use Powershell with NRPE. Now I ran this command,
command[alias_check_commerce_log]=cmd /c echo C:\Program Files\nrpe\plugins\file_checker.ps1; exit($LastExitCode) | powershell.exe -command -
in cmd and it went through without a hitch. Just when I call it via Icinga, for some odd reason, it spits out 'powershell.exeA' is not recognized as an internal or external command. Now I know the A is not supposed to be sitting with powershell.exe, so how would I keep this from happening? Keep in mind that the command is the same in the config as posted here. Checked all text in hopes of it just being a simple Typo. I just can't seem to wrap my head around this one and figure out how to keep this from happening. Any and all help is appreciated, thank you.
Probably file encoding. You likely copy/pasted the command line from a web site or something, and there is a special character after .exe.
Open the file where that command is defined in an editor that supports different encodings and hopefully one that can show whitespace and "special" characters, and inspect the file.
Or Start over and manually type the commands.
I've looked into the forum for one hour now, and tried everything I've found here but still I don't manage to run my .exe using a powershell script.
Please forgive my ignorance, I'm very new with powershell..
Basically, my script is aimed to daily monitor files loaded.
For this, I need to list .txt files in my working directory, which I managed to do.
My issue is that when files arrive in my working folder, they have nonspeaking names that I can't figure out which business it's related to.
There is a RemaneFile1.exe executable that renames files according to some data codes inside my .txt files from something like "Inf320638.txt" to something like "lot_RUHPEG_296_320638" and that is exactly what .exe I would like to run using powershell (I didn't coded it, and I don't know how it works, just that when I manually run it it renames my files just fine).
I've tried those two command lines below, but when I look at my files, they are actually not renamed.
1. &".\INFOCENTRE\LOTS\RenameFile1.exe
=> When I check my file name it's still like "Inf320638.txt".
2. Start-Process ".\INFOCENTRE\LOTS\RenameFile1.exe" => A command prompt shows up for an instant, but when I check my file name it's like "Inf320638.txt".
Any help would be highly appreciated,
Brgs,
Thomas.
Try to run the executable with the following arguments:
Start-Process .\INFOCENTRE\LOTS\RenameFile1.exe -WorkingDirectory .\INFOCENTRE\LOTS -Wait
It might be, that the workingdirectory is what screws it up. The -wait switch lets powershell wait for the programm to finish, you could omit it.
When I call the following code:
Start-Process Firefox
Then the PowerShell opens the browser. I can do that with several other programs and it works. My question is: How does the PowerShell know which program to open if I type Firefox? I mean, Im not using a concrete Path or something ...
I though it has something to do with the environment variables ... But I cannot find any variable there which is called Firefox ... How can he know?
I traced two halves of it, but I can't make them meet in the middle.
Process Monitor shows it checks the PATHs, and eventually checks HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe so that's my answer to how it finds the install location, and then runs it.
That registry key is for Application Registration which says:
When the ShellExecuteEx function is called with the name of an executable file in its lpFile parameter, there are several places where the function looks for the file. We recommend registering your application in the App Paths registry subkey.
The file is sought in the following locations:
The current working directory.
The Windows directory only (no subdirectories are searched).
The Windows\System32 directory.
Directories listed in the PATH environment variable.
Recommended: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths
That implies PowerShell calls the Windows ShellExecuteEx function, which finds FireFox as a registered application, or it tries the same kind of searching itself internally.
Going the other way to try and confirm that, the Start-Process cmdlet has a parameter set called UseShellExecute. The 'Notes' of that help says:
This cmdlet is implemented by using the Start method of the System.Diagnostics.Process class. For more information about this method, see Process.Start Method
Trying to trace through the source code on GitHub:
Here is the PowerShell source code for Start-Process.
Here, at this line it tries to look up the $FilePath parameter with CommandDiscovery.LookupCommandInfo.
Here it checks else if (ParameterSetName.Equals("UseShellExecute"))
Then Here is the .Start() function which either starts it with ShellExecute or Process.Start()
OK, not sure if ShellExecute and ShellExecuteEx behave the same, but it could be PS calling Windows, which is doing the search for "FireFox".
That CommandSearcher.LookupCommandInfo comes in here and follows to TryNormalSearch() which is implemented here and immediately starts a CommandSearcher which has a state machine for the things it will search
SearchState.SearchingAliases
Functions
CmdLets
SearchingBuiltinScripts
StartSearchingForExternalCommands
PowerShellPathResolution
QualifiedFileSystemPath
and there I get lost. I can't follow it any further right now.
Either it shortcuts straight to Windows doing the lookup
Or the PowerShell CommandSearcher does the same search somehow
Or the PowerShell CommandSearcher in some way runs out of searching, and the whole thing falls back to asking Windows search.
The fact that Process Monitor only logs one query in each PATH folder for "firefox.*" and then goes to the registry key suggests it's not doing this one, or I'd expect many more lookups.
The fact that it logs one query for "get-firefox.*" in each PATH folder suggests it is PowerShell's command searcher doing the lookup and not Windows.
Hmm.
Using Process Monitor I was able to trace the PowerShell.
It first searches the $env:path variable, then the $profile variable.
In my case firefox wasn't found and then it searches through a whole lot in the Registry and somehow finds it.
It might have something to do with how firefox is installed on the system.
I got some strange behaviour when executing a powershell script.
When I run my script using the ISE it works just fine.
When I open Powershell.exe and run my script it works just fine.
When I open cmd, and start my script using powershell.exe -noexit
./myscript.ps1, myscript works just fine.
When I double-click myscript however, powershell opens for some milliseconds, I see that it shows some error (red font) and the powershell window closes. I'm unable to track down the error causing this problem since the powershell windows closes to fast.
I even tried one single big try-catch block around my hole script, catching any [Exception] and writing it down to a log file. However: the log file is not generated (catch is not called).
How can I track that issue? What could possibly be causing the trouble?
Please note that my execution-policy is set to unrestricted.
Before trying the suggestion invoke this to see your current settings (if you want restore them later):
cmd /c FType Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1
Then invoke this (note that you will change how your scripts are invoked "from explorer" by this):
cmd /c #"
FType Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1=$PSHOME\powershell.exe -NoExit . "'%1'" %*
"#
Then double-click the script, it should not exit, -NoExit does the trick. See your error messages and solve the problems.
But now all your scripts invoked "from explorer" keep their console opened. You may then
remove -NoExit from the above command and run it again or restore your
original settings.
Some details and one good way to invoke scripts in PS v2 is here.
Unfortunately it is broken in PS v3 - submitted issue.
by default, for security reason when you double clic on a .ps1 file the action is : Edit file, not Run file .
to execute your script : right-click on it and choose run with powershell
I also wasn’t able to run a script by double clicking it although running it manually worked without a problem. I have found out that the problem was in the path. When I ran a script from a path that contained spaces, such as:
C:\Users\john doe\Documents\Sample.ps1
The scipt failed to run. Moving the script to:
C:\Scripts\Sample.ps1
Which has no spaces, solved the problem.
This is most likely an issue with your local Execution Policy.
By default, Powershell is configured to NOT run scripts that are unsigned (even local ones). If you've not signed your scripts, then changing your default double-click 'action' in Windows will have no effect - Powershell will open, read the execution policy, check the script's signature, and finding none, will abort with an error.
In Powershell:
Help about_execution_policies
gives you all the gory details, as well as ways to allow unsigned scripts to run (within reason - you'd probably not want to run remote ones, only ones you've saved onto the system).
EDIT: I see at the tail end of your question that you've set Execution Policy to 'unrestricted' which SHOULD allow the script to run. However, this might be useful info for others running into execution policy issues.
If you would catch the error you will most likely see this
The file cannot be loaded. The file is not
digitally signed. The script will not execute on the system. Please
see "Get-Help about_signing" for more details.
Because you are able to run it from the shell you started yourself, and not with the right mouse button click "Run With PowerShell", I bet you have x64 system. Manually you are starting the one version of PowerShell where execution policy is configured, while with the right click the other version of the PowerShell is started.
Try to start both version x64 and x86 version and check for security policies in each
Get-ExecutionPolicy
I was in exactly the same situation as described in the question : my script worked everywhere except when double-clicking.* When I double-clicked a powershell windows would open but then it will close after a second or so. My execution-policy is also set to unrestricted.
I tried the selected answer concerning FType Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1 but it didn't change anything.
The only solution I found was a work around: create a bat file which start the powershell.
Create a file, copy this and modify the path : powershell.exe -File "C:\Users\user\script\myscript.ps1"
Save it as a .bat
Double-click the bat
I also used .ahk to start my powershell with a shorcut and it didn't work when pointing directly to the powershell. I had to point to the .bat