CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershell
Faheem
Faheem

Reputation: 31

Run Powershell commands sequentially in their own windows and prevent them from exiting

I want to run multiple Powershell commands sequentially in their own Powershell windows and do not want those windows to be closed after running.

Example:

Start-Process powershell {Write-Host "hello"}; Start-Process powershell 
{Write-Host "hello"}; Start-Process powershell {Write-Host "hello"}

Powershell windows get closed right after running. I want them to remain open.

Edit: Multiple commands are not always same and they may vary in number.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3231

Answers (2)

mklement0
mklement0

Reputation: 437082

# Asynchronously starts 3 new PowerShell windows that 
# print "hello #<n>" to the console and stay open.
1..3 | ForEach-Object { 
  Start-Process powershell -Args '-noexit', '-command', "Write-Host 'hello #$_'" 
}

  • -noexit is required to keep a PowerShell session open after executing a command with -command (run powershell.exe -? to see all CLI parameters)

  • Note how the arguments are specified individually, as ,-separated elements of an array that is passed to
    -Args (short for -ArgumentList, though the parameter name can be omitted altogether in this case).

  • Note how the Write-Host command is passed as a string - script blocks aren't supported as such in this scenario; you can pass one, as you tried, but it will be quietly converted to a string, which simply means that its literal content is used (everything between { and }).
    In other words: passing {Write-Host "hello"} is the same as 'Write-Host "hello"', but to avoid confusion you should pass a string.

    • You can only pass a script block as such if you invoke powershell.exe directly, not via Start-Process; you need Start-Process, however, to run the new session in a new window and to start it asynchronously.

    • Also, the string was changed to a double-quoted string ("...") with embedded single-quoting ('...') to ensure that the reference to $_ - the automatic variable representing the pipeline object at hand (1, 2, or 3) - is expanded (interpolated).

Using the pipeline (|) with an array of inputs (1..3, which evaluates to array 1, 2, 3) with the ForEach-Object cmdlet is just an example - you can still invoke the individual commands individually, one after the other, on individual lines, or separated with ; - thanks to Start-Process they'll still launch asynchronously.

However, if the individual commands share logic, the pipeline approach can simplify matters; you can put the shared logic in the body of the ForEach-Object call and pass the variable parts as input via the pipeline.

Upvotes: 3

Jorg Roper
Jorg Roper

Reputation: 647

Put a read-host at the end of the command sequence - it will wait for you to input something before continuing execution (and presumably exiting?). To copy/paste the example in this link, you could anything like this which will pause execution until you enter something: $Age = Read-Host "Please enter your age" -> Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/read-host?view=powershell-6

Upvotes: 0

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