When using start /max program_name to start a bunch programs, how to focus on each program when it opens. For now, it open focus on the first program, and launch others on the back. thanks.
OS: Windows Server 2003
Program: any windows program, like notepad
PS. It will focus on newly opened program on Windows XP SP3, but not Windows server 2003.
I haven't been able to find a way to use the start command for this behavior, but if you can use a powershell script instead of a .bat file, here is the code to start a new process maximized and always pop up to the front:
$psi = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$psi.Filename = "notepad.exe"
$psi.Arguments = ""
$psi.WindowStyle = 3
[System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($psi)
Just fill in the Filename and Arguments and you're good to go.
My first thought was to use rundll32 to call Shell32.dll's ShellExecute, but it look like it needs parameters that I can't type from the commandline, such as a reference to the parent window.
Related
This is really basic, but I can't find the answer. The installer sets up my path so that I can just type the command:
ng serve
at the command prompt and the script runs. I don't want to wait for this program to finish (it's a server, after all). How do I launch the same script (it's a CMD script as far as I can tell) from Powershell without waiting for it to finish (and without having to find the source directory for the script)?
If it's acceptable to terminate the server when the PowerShell session exits, use a background job:
In PowerShell (Core) 7+
ng server &
In Windows PowerShell, explicit use of Start-Job is required:
Start-Job { ng server }
Both commands return a job-information object, which you can either save in a variable ($jb = ...) or discard ($null = ...)
If the server process produces output you'd like to monitor, you can use the Receive-Job cmdlet.
See the conceptual about_Jobs topic for more information.
If the server must continue to run even after the launching PowerShell session exits, use the Start-Process cmdlet, which on Windows launches an independent process in a new console window (by default); use the -WindowStyle parameter to control the visibility / state of that window:
Start-Process ng server # short for: Start-Process -FilePath ng -ArgumentList server
Note: On Unix-like platforms, where Start-Process doesn't support creating independent new terminal windows, you must additionally use nohup - see this answer.
When you're in file explorer you can click on File > Open Windows Powershell(or its icon in the Quick Access Toolbar) to start an instance of Powershell in the directory that your file explorer is in. I would like to then automatically run a simple command in this directory and close the Powershell window after it is done.
I have tried adding my command to my Powershell Profile but it executes before the path variable has been set and it runs with $pwd being equal to C:\Users\MyUsername (my home directory) or C:\WINDOWS\system32 (seems to be a race condition of some sort, no idea why it does one or the other). To the best of my understanding this is because the file explorer "open in powershell button" opens powershell and THEN cd's to the directory I was in in file explorer. So when the profile.ps1 is ran it is using the only directories it knows if since the cd call hasn't been made yet. This is similar to running the command start powershell.exe in cmd vs start powershell.exe -command "cd 'C:\wherever'". The former correctly runs my profile command while the latter uses the current directory of cmd and not the C:\wherever.
So, obviously the $pwd variable is being assigned at different times in the case of opening it from cmd and opening it from file explorer. Is there some way to delay the execution of a command in the profile until after the shell has fully loaded? Simply sleeping the script doesn't help.
Alternatively, if anyone knows how to edit the registry so that I can change the behavior of clicking File > Open Windows Powershell (since it must have access to some variable storing the current directory and I assume it calls the Powershell executable with this variable as an argument being cd'd to), that would work too.
Then again I could be incredibly naive about how File > Open Windows Powershell and the Powershell instantiation process works.
Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!
I figured it out in the most hacky, gross way ever, but without easy access to Windows internals this is the only working method I could find. I set up my powershell profile to make my window title my prompt like so:
function Prompt
{
$host.ui.RawUI.WindowTitle = $(get-location)
“PS> “
}
Then I set up a task in the Task Scheduler that was triggered by powershell reaching its prompt (there are 3 possible hooks, when the console is starting up, when it starts an IPC listening thread, and when the console is ready for input). I used the Event Viewer to do this (I was going to post screenshots but I don't have 10 reputation yet).
Then, I set the action on this task to run the script shown below, which reads from the window title of my first instance of powershell
Start-Sleep -s 1
$A = Get-Process -Name powershell | Where-Object -FilterScript {$_.Id -ne $PID}
$B = $A.MainWindowTitle
& C:\Program` Files\MyProgram\MyProgram.exe "$B"
stop-process -Id $A.Id
stop-process -Id $PID
This whole menagerie of events properly runs my program with the current file explorer directory as an argument (and then closes powershell) when I click the little powershell icon on the quick access toolbar in file explorer.
Found a much cleaner and faster way to do this. All I had to do was set up my profile to look like this, no tasks or second instance of powershell required
function Prompt
{
& C:\Program` Files\MyProgram\MyProgram.exe "$pwd"
stop-process -Id $PID
}
I am trying to get a local powershell script to trigger a VBS script inside a citrix instance. The events should be this:
Citrix Instance opening Windows Explorer ----> Network Path of script typed into the windows explorer session
I'm using the WfIcaLib.dll (ICOSDK) that came with the Citrix receiver install. Documentation PDF for the Citrix ICOSDK is available here
So this is the code I'm using, which works PERFECTLY in Powershell command line, but when I use the 32-bit ISE, it does nothing other than telling me the DLL has been loaded. I get no errors, but the Citrix Client never actually opens like it does when I run the same exact commands through Powershell command line.
#load Citrix ICA Client SDK
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile("C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client\WfIcaLib.dll")
$ICA = New-Object WFICALib.ICAClientClass
$ICA.Address = "***.***.***.***:****"
$ICA.Application = "Windows ExplorerFED6"
$ICA.Username = "******"
$ICA.Domain = "**"
$ICA.Launch = $true
$ICA.Outputmode = [WfIcaLib.OutputMode]::OutputModeNormal
$ICA.SetProp("Password", "*********")
$ICA.TWIMode=$true
$ICA.Connect()
Any ideas?
EDIT: SOLVED - after reopening under 32-bit ISE and getting code to work, I could not run the .ps1 file since it kept defaulting to 64-bit (even if using Open With on 32-bit powershell version). Running the script via command prompt or 32-bit powershell console both worked.
Using any method suggested by Mike Garuccio worked just fine. I will most likely end up using a Task Scheduler to run the script.
It looks like the problem is a versioning one, which you can deal with using start-job (was originally going to do this with a runspace but that's a lot more code for no real benefit). This will start a job to run your code under 32-bit powershell, it should still place any GUI elements or popups on screen but if you need to get any data out from the script later you'll need to receive the job. code would look something like below.
$SB = {
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile("C:\Program Files (x86)\Citrix\ICA Client\WfIcaLib.dll")
$ICA = New-Object WFICALib.ICAClientClass
$ICA.Address = "***.***.***.***:****"
$ICA.Application = "Windows ExplorerFED6"
$ICA.Username = "******"
$ICA.Domain = "**"
$ICA.Launch = $true
$ICA.Outputmode = [WfIcaLib.OutputMode]::OutputModeNormal
$ICA.SetProp("Password", "*********")
$ICA.TWIMode=$true
$ICA.Connect()
}
Start-Job -ScriptBlock $SB -RunAs32
get-job | Receive-Job
Alternatively, you could also use a simple .bat file as a launcher with something like C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -file yourscript.ps1
or if you need everything to be wrapped in powershell and the job does not work you can use the solution Here that basically does the same thing but from within powershell (drop the if statement they use tho, just use the stuff contained inside it like below, with any changes you need to make wrt the profile and interactive settings.)
&"$env:windir\syswow64\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -noninteractive -noprofile -file "C:\Path o\script.ps1" -executionpolicy bypass
hope one of those works for you!
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 writing a script to use multiple plink (PuTTY) sessions as a Windows version of clusterssh. I am stuck however because I want to open multiple Powershell windows from powershell. When I type the command for powershell, it opens a new session. This is similar to typing bash in bash. I want multiple physical windows opening.
I tried -windowstyle as well as the other args to no avail. I was wondering if there is a way you know of. I really appreciate your help. I looked and didn't find anything already here. Thanks for your time.
This will open a new window.
Either:
start-process powershell
Or:
start powershell
if you are trying to open a new window and launch a new script:
start powershell {.\scriptInNewPSWindow.ps1}
This will do it:
Invoke-Item C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
This works for me:
$argList = "-file `"$Location\script.ps1`""
Start-Process powershell -argumentlist $argList
(The backticks are necessary. This can be copied outright.) Variables can be used in the "-file" parameter (such as one set at the beginning of the script to reflect the location of the file) and spaces can appear in the variable due to the backticks.
Edited to use a two-line solution (the "$argList" variable) because PowerShell can mangle things otherwise.
To start Powershell 6 from a PS console start pwsh might do the trick.
It starts in the same folder.
(I haven't delved into it but I guess PS6's pwsh.exe has to be in the path for it to work.)