A Visual Studio project can be upgraded from the command line using the devenv.exe command as follows:
devenv.exe SOLUTION_PATH /Upgrade
Where SOLUTION_PATH is a path to a Visual Studio solution (or project) file.
What is the most direct way to perform this step as part of a GitHub action?
What I Have Tried
So far I have failed to find a way to get devenv.exe into the path of the GitHub Action. There does not appear to be a prebuilt action step for this (setup-msbuild step does not make devenv available). Even hardcoding a path such as
MSDEVENV_PATH: ${{'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Enterprise\Common7\IDE\devenv.com'}}
... then later ...
run: ${{env.MSDEVENV_PATH}} ${{env.SOLUTION_FILE_PATH}} /Upgrade
fails because the path contains spaces, and I can find no way to add quotation marks.
I am aware of a way to find devenv using powershell and extra downloadable packages however this will require writing a PowerShell script, and presumably signing it, and I have no idea whether this will even work in a GitHub Action. Perhaps there is a much simpler approach, hence my question: what is the most direct way to upgrade a solution?
You need a Windows-based runner. vswhere is the tool to get path to various components of the Visual Studio installation and its folder is in the path (source).
run: |
$devenv = & vswhere.exe '-property' productPath
Start-Process -FilePath $devenv -ArgumentList '${{env.SOLUTION_FILE_PATH}} /Upgrade' -Wait
Thanks to #riQQ's partial answer I currently have the following, which waits for the output to be done using both a pipe to Out-Null suggested in this answer and also waits for the generated files to appear. Note that I am using a path to the project not to the solution. (I could not get solution upgrading to work correctly, although I never worked out why.)
run: |
$devenv = & vswhere.exe '-property' productPath
Write-Output "$devenv"
& $devenv "${{env.VCPROJ_FILE_PATH}}" /Upgrade /NoSplash | Out-Null
Write-Output "devenv launched"
while (!(Test-Path "${{env.VCXPROJ_FILE_PATH}}")) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 }
Write-Output "vcxproj found"
while (!(Test-Path "${{env.VCXPROJ_FILTERS_FILE_PATH}}")) { Start-Sleep -Seconds 10 }
Write-Output "vcxproj.filters found"
Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
Write-Output "done."
For some reason this step is taking over 5 minutes to complete when run as part of a GitHub Action. It takes only a few seconds on my local machine. Because of the nasty file polling I don't consider this an ideal solution, but I am posting it here for reference.
I'd like to delete log files using a task scheduler from a 2008 Windows server that'll be run using a task scheduler. I've created my own and used online scripts but nothing has worked. After running the the script manually on the server a prompt appears that halts this process (which seems to be the issue). Below is a script that I've run on my pc that worked and the OS is Windows 1903 and it worked. The only discrepancy that I could this of is that the PowerShell versions are different. Could someone provide advice as to why is doesn't delete files on a Windows 2008 OS?
Skeleton Script:
Get-ChildItem –Path "C:\path\to\folder" -Recurse |
Where-Object {($_.LastWriteTime -lt
(Get-Date).AddDays(-60))} | Remove-Item
Aaron,
Change remove-item to remove-item -Confirm:$false -force It will stop asking you to confirm the deleting of files. – Aaron
This solved the issue.
I am distributing a PowerShell script to my team. The script is to fetch an IP address from the Vsphere client, make an mstsc connection, and log it in a shared file.
The moment they used the script they got to know the IP address of machine. After that, they always tend to use mstsc directly instead of running the PowerShell script.
(As they are using mstsc I am not able to know whether they are using the VM frequently or not.)
Mainly they are telling me that running PowerShell is not straightforward.
I am sick by their laziness.
Is there a way to make a PowerShell script work by double clicking a .ps1 file?
Create a shortcut with something like this as the "Target":
powershell.exe -command "& 'C:\A path with spaces\MyScript.ps1' -MyArguments blah"
Or if you want all PS1 files to work the way VBS files do, you can edit the registry like this:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\open\command
Edit the Default value to be something like so...
"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -noLogo -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -file "%1"
Then you can just double click all your .PS1 files like you would like to. in my humble opinion, be able to out of the box.
I'm going to call this "The Powershell De-castration Hack". LOL enjoy!
This worked for me on Windows 10 and powershell 5.1:
right click on the .ps1 file
Open with...
Choose another app
Copy the location of powershell.exe to the address bar (by default it won't show windows folder) i.e. C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0
select powershell.exe
select "Always use this app to open .ps1 files"
click OK
Be aware that one of PowerShell's security features is that users can NOT launch script with a double click. Use great care if you modify this setting. An alternative might be to package your script. Some editors like PrimalScript can do that. The users still need PowerShell installed but then they can double-click the exe. And it sounds like your team needs a little education.
I agree that setting a system setting may be a bit much, but the shortcut requiring a hardcoded path is not ideal. A bat file actually solves the problem nicely
RunMyPowershellScript.bat
start powershell -command "& '.\MyPowershellScript.ps1' -MyArguments blah"
This batch file can now be double clicked on, shortcuts can be easily created to the batch file, and the script can be deployed to any folder.
I wrote this a few years ago (run it with administrator rights):
<#
.SYNOPSIS
Change the registry key in order that double-clicking on a file with .PS1 extension
start its execution with PowerShell.
.DESCRIPTION
This operation bring (partly) .PS1 files to the level of .VBS as far as execution
through Explorer.exe is concern.
This operation is not advised by Microsoft.
.NOTES
File Name : ModifyExplorer.ps1
Author : J.P. Blanc - jean-paul_blanc#silogix-fr.com
Prerequisite: PowerShell V2 on Vista and later versions.
Copyright 2010 - Jean Paul Blanc/Silogix
.LINK
Script posted on:
http://www.silogix.fr
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\silogix> Set-PowAsDefault -On
Call Powershell for .PS1 files.
Done!
.EXAMPLE
PS C:\silogix> Set-PowAsDefault
Tries to go back
Done!
#>
function Set-PowAsDefault
{
[CmdletBinding()]
Param
(
[Parameter(mandatory=$false, ValueFromPipeline=$false)]
[Alias("Active")]
[switch]
[bool]$On
)
begin
{
if ($On.IsPresent)
{
Write-Host "Call PowerShell for .PS1 files."
}
else
{
Write-Host "Try to go back."
}
}
Process
{
# Text Menu
[string]$TexteMenu = "Go inside PowerShell"
# Text of the program to create
[string] $TexteCommande = "%systemroot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -Command ""&'%1'"""
# Key to create
[String] $clefAModifier = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\Open\Command"
try
{
$oldCmdKey = $null
$oldCmdKey = Get-Item $clefAModifier -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$oldCmdValue = $oldCmdKey.getvalue("")
if ($oldCmdValue -ne $null)
{
if ($On.IsPresent)
{
$slxOldValue = $null
$slxOldValue = Get-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "slxOldValue" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($slxOldValue -eq $null)
{
New-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "slxOldValue" -Value $oldCmdValue -PropertyType "String" | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "(default)" -Value $TexteCommande -PropertyType "ExpandString" | Out-Null
Write-Host "Done !"
}
else
{
Write-Host "Already done!"
}
}
else
{
$slxOldValue = $null
$slxOldValue = Get-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "slxOldValue" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($slxOldValue -ne $null)
{
New-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "(default)" -Value $slxOldValue."slxOldValue" -PropertyType "String" | Out-Null
Remove-ItemProperty $clefAModifier -Name "slxOldValue"
Write-Host "Done!"
}
else
{
Write-Host "No former value!"
}
}
}
}
catch
{
$_.exception.message
}
}
end {}
}
You'll need to tweak registry.
First, configure a PSDrive for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT since this isn’t set up by default. The command for this is:
New-PSDrive HKCR Registry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Now you can navigate and edit registry keys and values in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT just like you would in the regular HKCU and HKLM PSDrives.
To configure double-clicking to launch PowerShell scripts directly:
Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 0
To configure double-clicking to open PowerShell scripts in the PowerShell ISE:
Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 'Edit'
To restore the default value (sets double-click to open PowerShell scripts in Notepad):
Set-ItemProperty HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell '(Default)' 'Open'
Simple PowerShell commands to set this in the registry;
New-PSDrive -Name HKCR -PSProvider Registry -Root HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCR:\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\open\command" -name '(Default)' -Value '"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -noLogo -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -file "%1"'
You may set the default file association of ps1 files to be powershell.exe which will allow you to execute a powershell script by double clicking on it.
In Windows 10,
Right click on a ps1 file
Click Open with
Click Choose another app
In the popup window, select More apps
Scroll to the bottom and select Look for another app on this PC.
Browse to and select C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe.
List item
That will change the file association and ps1 files will execute by double-clicking them. You may change it back to its default behavior by setting notepad.exe to the default app.
Source
I tried the top-most answers to this question, but encountered error messages. Then I found the answer here:
PowerShell says "execution of scripts is disabled on this system."
What worked well for me was to use this solution:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File script.ps1
You can paste that into a .bat file and double-click on it.
put a simple .cmd file in my subfolder with my .ps1 file with the same name, so, for example, a script named "foobar" would have "foobar.ps1" and "foobar.cmd". So to run the .ps1, all I have to do is click the .cmd file from explorer or run the .cmd from a command prompt. I use the same base name because the .cmd file will automatically look for the .ps1 using its own name.
::====================================================================
:: Powershell script launcher
::=====================================================================
:MAIN
#echo off
for /f "tokens=*" %%p in ("%~p0") do set SCRIPT_PATH=%%p
pushd "%SCRIPT_PATH%"
powershell.exe -sta -c "& {.\%~n0.ps1 %*}"
popd
set SCRIPT_PATH=
pause
The pushd/popd allows you to launch the .cmd file from a command prompt without having to change to the specific directory where the scripts are located. It will change to the script directory then when complete go back to the original directory.
You can also take the pause off if you want the command window to disappear when the script finishes.
If my .ps1 script has parameters, I prompt for them with GUI prompts using .NET Forms, but also make the scripts flexible enough to accept parameters if I want to pass them instead. This way I can just double-click it from Explorer and not have to know the details of the parameters since it will ask me for what I need, with list boxes or other forms.
Navigate REGEDIT to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell
On the right pane, double-click "(Default)"
Delete existing value of "Open" (which launches Notepad) and type "0" (being zero, which launches Powershell directly).
Revert the value if you wish to use Notepad as the default again.
A solution in the same spirit as UNIX shar (shell archive).
You can put your powershell script in a file with the .cmd extension (instead of .ps1), and put this at the start:
#echo off
Rem Make powershell read this file, skip a number of lines, and execute it.
Rem This works around .ps1 bad file association as non executables.
PowerShell -Command "Get-Content '%~dpnx0' | Select-Object -Skip 5 | Out-String | Invoke-Expression"
goto :eof
# Start of PowerShell script here
If you are familiar with advanced Windows administration, then you can use this ADM package (instructions are included on that page) and allow running PowerShell scripts after double click via this template and Local GPO. After this you can simply change default program associated to .ps1 filetype to powershell.exe (use search, it's quite stashed) and you're ready to run PowerShell scripts with double click.
Otherwise, I would recommend to stick with other suggestions as you can mess up the whole system with these administrations tools.
I think that the default settings are too strict. If someone manages to put some malicious code on your computer then he/she is also able to bypass this restriction (wrap it into .cmd file or .exe, or trick with shortcut) and all that it in the end accomplishes is just to prevent you from easy way of running the script you've written.
there is my solution 2022
Install "PowerShell-7.2.2-win-x64.msi"
Right click on file.ps1 and change to exec with "pwsh"
Powershell registry hacks and policy bypass never worked for me.
This is based on KoZm0kNoT's answer. I modified it to work across drives.
#echo off
pushd "%~d0"
pushd "%~dp0"
powershell.exe -sta -c "& {.\%~n0.ps1 %*}"
popd
popd
The two pushd/popds are necessary in case the user's cwd is on a different drive. Without the outer set, the cwd on the drive with the script will get lost.
This is what I use to have scrips run as admin by default:
Powershell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList '-File """%1"""'}"
You'll need to paste that into regedit as the default value for:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\Open\Command
Or here's a script that will do it for you:
$hive = [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenBaseKey('ClassesRoot', 'Default')
$key = $hive.CreateSubKey('Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\Open\Command')
$key.SetValue($null, 'Powershell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process PowerShell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList ''-File """%1"""''}"')
I used this (need to run it only once); also make sure you have rights to execute:
from PowerShell with elevated rights:
Set-ExecutionPolicy=RemoteSigned
then from a bat file:
-----------------------------------------
ftype Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1="C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -noexit ^&'%%1'
assoc .ps1=Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1
-----------------------------------------
auto exit: remove -noexit
and voila; double-clicking a *.ps1 will execute it.
In Windows 10 you might also want to delete Windows Explorer's override for file extension association:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.ps1\UserChoice
in addition to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell\open\command change mentioned in other answers.
See https://stackoverflow.com/a/2697804/1360907
You may not want to but an easy way is just to create a .BAT file and put your command in:
powershell ./generate-strings-table-en.ps1
powershell ./generate-conjoined-tables-it.ps1
Then double-click said BAT file.
You can use the Windows 'SendTo' functionality to make running PS1 scripts easier. Using this method you can right click on
a PS1 script and execute. This is doesn't exactly answer the OP question but it is close. Hopefully, this is useful to others. BTW.. this is helpful for
a variety of other tasks.
Locate / Search for Powershell.exe
Right click on Powershell.exe and choose Open File Location
Right click on Powershell.exe and choose Create Shortcut. Temporarily save some place like your desktop
You might want to open as Admin by default. Select Shortcut > Properties > Advanced > Open As Admin
Open the Sendto folder. Start > Run > Shell:Sendto
Move the Powershell.exe shortcut to the Sendto folder
You should now be able to right click on a PS1 script.
Right Click on a PS1 file, Select the SendTo context option > Select the Powershell shortcut
Your PS1 script should execute.
From http://www.howtogeek.com/204166/how-to-configure-windows-to-work-with-powershell-scripts-more-easily:
Set the default value for the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Microsoft.PowerShellScript.1\Shell to 0
Powershell suddenly quit opening from both cmd and powershell prompts. I haven't installed anything new between when it did work and when it quit working.
When I try to start powershell.exe from a cmd window (both elevated and not elevated) with the following command
C:\Users\myuser>powershell.exe
I get a popup error from the OS that says:
This app can't run on your PC
Once I close that popup the cmd prompt I made the call from then prints:
Access is denied
To the screen (yes even when I do this in an elevated cmd prompt)
When I try to do it in powershell with the following command:
PS C:\Users\myuser> powershell.exe
I get:
Program 'powershell.exe' failed to run: The specified executable is not a valid application for this OS platform.
At line:1 char:1
+ powershell.exe
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
At line:1 char:1
+ powershell.exe
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
+ CategoryInfo : ResourceUnavailable: (:) [], ApplicationFailedException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorID : NativeCommandFailed
Apparently even powershell doesn't like powershell anymore.
I've tried restarting the computer and that didn't fix it, but I'm totally stymied as to what to do next.
#PetSerAl gave the crucial pointer in comments on the question.
The "This app can't run on your PC" pop-up error message on Windows 8 or above
indicates:
a corrupted file, such as a 0-byte *.exe file, esp. when followed by an "Access denied" error in the console.
or, increasingly less commonly, an attempt to run a 64-bit executable on a 32-bit edition of Windows.
Troubleshooting steps:
From a Command Prompt (cmd.exe console), run where.exe <executable-name>;
from PowerShell, run Get-Command -All <executable-name>, which shows you all executables by that name present in the directories listed in the $env:PATH environment variable in that order, by their full paths.
Note that where.exe, unlike Get-Command, also looks in the current directory, and looks there first.
Thus, the first path returned is the executable that is actually executed when only the executable name is specified.
Note that a match in the current directory, if found by where.exe, only matters when calling the executable from cmd.exe (from the Command Prompt or a batch file), because PowerShell by design doesn't allow invocation of executables from the current directory by mere name.
If you want to run where.exe from PowerShell, extension .exe is required, because the command name where by itself is a built-in alias for the Where-Object cmdlet.
In the output from where.exe / Get-Command, check:
if the executable you expect is listed first.
if its size is non-zero.
Remove unexpected (zero-byte) executables, or, if you expect them to be there as functioning executables, reinstall them.
Example:
Look for all all executables named powershell.exe in the current directory and in the directories listed in $env:PATH.
Note that the proper home of powershell.exe is C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0, as reflected in $PSHOME.
From cmd.exe (regular Command Prompt):
where powershell.exe
Example output:
C:\Windows\System32\powershell.exe
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
From PowerShell:
Get-Command -All powershell.exe
If you also want to look in the current directory, use
Get-Command -All .\powershell.exe, powershell.exe
Example output:
CommandType Name Version Source
----------- ---- ------- ------
Application powershell.exe 0.0.0.0 C:\WINDOWS\system32\powershell.exe
Application powershell.exe 10.0.14... C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
If you want to include the file size in the output:
PS> where.exe powershell.exe | % { [system.io.fileinfo] $_ |
select fullname, length, #{ n = 'Version'; e = { $_.versioninfo.FileversionRaw } } }
FullName Length Version
-------- ------ -------
C:\Windows\System32\powershell.exe 0
C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe 446976 10.0.14393.206
Delete the powershell.exe (with 0KB) from location C:\Windows\System32
In my case Powershell working fine after deleting the powershell.exe (with 0KB) from system 32
In a serious intiative to migrate all my command line operations to PowerShell, I would like to avoid using the old fashioned command console for anything. However, the Visual Studio Command prompt has various environment variables and path settings not found in the default command prompt. How could I create a 'Visual Studio PowerShell' with those same settings?
You can use for example this script to import Visual Studio command prompt environment, see the examples in the script documentation comments, e.g. for Visual Studio 2010:
Invoke-Environment '"%VS100COMNTOOLS%\vsvars32.bat"'
Having done that in the beginning of a PowerShell session (from your profile or manually), you get what you ask for in this PowerShell session.
Or you can use the solution provided by Keith Hill in this answer.
have a look at PowerConsole
PowerConsole has been incorporated into NuGet http://nuget.codeplex.com/. You get PowerShell inside Visual Studio and a package management system.
I use this script that I call Initialize-VisualStudio.ps1, i call it in my profile with dot source, to set the environment variables need it, in my actual session:
param([switch]$ArquitectureX86)
if($ArquitectureX86)
{ $arq= "x86"}
else
{ $arq="x64"}
pushd 'c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC'
cmd /c "vcvarsall.bat $arq&set" |
foreach {
if ($_ -match "=") {
$v = $_.split("="); set-item -force -path "ENV:\$($v[0])" -value "$($v[1])";
}
}
popd
What I do is create a simple cmd batch command script that looks like this:
call "%VS80COMNTOOLS%vsvars32.bat"
powershell
Then I create a shortcut that invokes this through cmd. The shortcut target looks like:
%windir%\System32\cmd.exe /k "SetupPSBuildEnvironment.cmd"
If you want the console to look like the powershell console, just modify the Layout to your liking in the shortcut properties.
First, check the contents of this folder:
C:/ProgramData/Microsoft/VisualStudio/Packages/_Instances/
There'll be another folder in it with a name consisting of hex digits (e.g. 2a7a9ed6, but that will vary for different MSVC versions). I'll refer to it as <instance_id>.
Then run from PS:
Import-Module 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\Common7\Tools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll'; Enter-VsDevShell <instance_id> -DevCmdArguments '-arch=x64'
Or you can create a shortcut with the following target:
<path to your powershell.exe> -noe -c "&{Import-Module """C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\BuildTools\Common7\Tools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll"""; Enter-VsDevShell <instance_id> -DevCmdArguments '-arch=x64'}"
Obviously, drop -arch=x64 if you need x86 toolset.
Works for me on Windows 10 with MS Build Tools 16.9.5 and PowerShell 5.1.19041,7.1.3