Scheduled Powershell task can't interact with browser

Question

Revised description:

using the suggestion below, I went with the most basic code I could create. Note that I'm using the Powershell Community Extensions with the "Start-Process" below. I don't know if that impacts things or not.

I have the below function

function Populate-Notepad
{
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic')
Start-Process Notepad 
[Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate("Untitled")
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait("blahblahblah")
return
}

Works fine interactively.

I have a function called Parse, which queries a POP account, and if a message is found - take an action. The action in question is thus ($helptext is defined and it works properly - this is being parsed correctly.)

Switch ($cmd)
{
"HELP"     {$text = $helptext}
"NOTE"     {populate-notepad}
default    {$msg = $msg + "Invalid command: $command `n"}
}

This does not fire notepad. If I watch task manager, it never appears to populate. My guess is that if this can be solved - so can the below problem.

I have a powershell script that invokes Firefox and fires a bunch of SendKeys at Firefox (it's a long story, but trying to use web invokation was problematic.) It works fine interactively, but when a scheduled task runs a powershell script that calls the above powershell script...

Firefox runs...but it's not interactive (so powershell is running and the script is firing.) In other words, I never see a Firefox window. I'm not sure if that's important or not, but there is always a firefox.exe in my task manager window. However, my script always hangs, complaining that it can't find the firefox window.

Like I said, this works interactively; it's using the same credentials via task manager as the regular interactive script does (there's only 1 user other than admin on this box); it's not hidden, and I've tried it as "run with highest privileges" to no avail.

Any thoughts?

Please edit your question and add the command by which you invoke firefox. Also check the event log or any other log that firefox might make for errors. Last, try the same with notepad.exe for example. — Davor Josipovic
– Davor Josipovic, Commented Jun 22, 2013 at 10:51

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:06:40Z

1

I had a few problems trying to do the very same, The powershell script is running in another session/context (as i read here Powershell scripts manipulating desktop elements don't work with Scheduler).

Therefore you cant use the gui.

My solution was to use this

    (new-object -com wscript.shell).run("http://localhost/",3)

This opens a local website, full screen and focused in the default web browser. after this, you can use the sendkeys.

As a side-note, if i was to use the AppActivate,i would start securing that it is really the process i just started, by capturing and using the ID instead.

    $iex = Start-Process 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe' -passthru 'http://localhost/'
    start-sleep 3
    [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate($iex.Id)

This will however not solve the problem,

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:06

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 11, 2013 at 9:37

Christopher Bonitz

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