How do you run Cleanmgr.exe remotely? - windows

Question

I'm having some trouble getting Clean Manager on Windows 10 to run remotely. I've seen a few different things were you can edit the registry and modify the /sageset or /sagerun to be specific things then run it remotely, but it seems no matter what I do the CleanMgr runs locally on my machine rather than running remotely.
I believe this is the closest I've gotten to get it to run remotely... It seems to still just run locally on my machine though.
Any ideas?
( All variables are set before this portion of the script, this is just a small portion of what's going on that I'm stuck on )
## Starts cleanmgr.exe
Function Start-CleanMGR {
Write-Host "Please provide your A-Account details to continue with this cleanup."
$creds = Get-Credential
Enter-PSSession -ComputerName $computername -Credential $creds
try {
$cleanmgr = Start-Process -Credential $creds -FilePath "C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe" -ArgumentList '/verylowdisk' -Wait -Verbose
if ($cleanmgr) {
Write-Host "Clean Manager ran successfully! " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Green
Write-Host "[DONE]" -ForegroundColor Green -BackgroundColor Black
}
}
catch [System.Exception] {
Write-host "Cleanmgr is not installed! To use this portion of the script you must install the following windows features:" -NoNewline -ForegroundColor DarkGray
Write-host "[ERROR]" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Black
}
} Start-CleanMGR

Answer 1

PowerShell always runs in the user context of the user who started the session. This is by design.
You can not run a GUI based application remotely using PowerShell. It is a Windows security boundary.
To run GUI apps, someone must be logged on, and you cannot use PowerShell to run code as the logged-on user.
You are also prompting for info, so, someone must be logged on.
If you are expecting a user to prived info, then you need to:
Create the script
Deploy the script to the user's machine or a files share from wich it
can be ran
Tell the user how to do it or create a batch file they would double
click to run the PowerShell script
Or
Set the script to run as a scheduled task at log on or at some point during the day, as the user credentials.
Variables have the scope and you cannot use local variables in a remote context unless they are scoped for that.
About Remote Variables
Using local variables
You can use local variables in remote commands, but the variable must
be defined in the local session.
Beginning in PowerShell 3.0, you can use the Using scope modifier to
identify a local variable in a remote command.
The syntax of Using is as follows:
$Using:<VariableName>
Still, the remote variable is not something you will do in your use case since you cannot do what you are after natively with PowerShell. You'll need a 3rdP tool like MS SysInternals PSExec to run code remotely as the logged-on user.
Using PsExec
Usage: psexec [\computer[,computer2[,...] | #file]][-u user [-p
psswd][-n s][-r servicename][-h][-l][-s|-e][-x][-i [session]][-c
executable [-f|-v]][-w directory][-d][-][-a n,n,...] cmd
[arguments]
-i Run the program so that it interacts with the desktop of the specified session on the remote system. If no session is specified the
process runs in the console session.
-u Specifies optional user name for login to remote computer.

Answer 2

I suggest that you use Invoke-Command
Function Start-CleanMGR ($computername, $creds) {
Invoke-Command -ComputerName $computername -Credential $creds -ScriptBlock {
try {
$cleanmgr = Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe" -ArgumentList '/verylowdisk' -Wait -Verbose
if ($cleanmgr) {
return "Clean Manager ran successfully!"
}
}
catch [System.Exception] {
return "Cleanmgr is not installed! To use this portion of the script you must install the following windows features:"
}
}
}
Start-CleanMGR -computername "remotehost" -creds (Get-Credential)

Answer 3

As long as you execute cleanmgr.exe under a user account that has local admin rights, everything will work. Running cleanmgr.exe under the SYSTEM account, E.G. running from the Run Script Tool in SCCM/MECM will not work unless the script first opens a separate shell (DOS/PS) under a user that has local admin rights...even the cleanmgr.exe /verylowdisk will not run under the SYSTEM account.