I am trying to set up an automatic printing solution on a Windows 2012 R2 Server.
So far I have written a .bat file that loops through and prints all pdf files that are in a folder. The main command looks something like this :
lpr -S 100.100.100.100 -P printQ %%F
(Where %%F is the file name)
Looking at Microsoft's documentation on this page, there doesn't seem to be anyway to specify the printer tray.
I could specify the printer tray through the control panel, but the batch script needs to dynamically assign different paper trays for different files.
I've come across some commercial command line printing solutions that use lpr and that are able to specify paper tray. Would I be correct to assume that it is therefore possible to dynamically specify paper tray using lpr?
I worked around the lpr limitations by creating 2 instances of the same printer in the control panel > Devices and Printers. And setting up both instances with a different paper tray source.
The lpr command seemed to ignore different printers set using the "-P" argument, probably because the "-S" argument was the same IP for the same printer. So I ended up using the PDF-XChange command line printing function instead.
"C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\PDF Viewer\PDFXCView.exe" /print:printer=!printer! "%%F"
I'm not sure if this is the best solution, but it works for now.
Related
Context
I have a Windows app printing PDF files by forwarding the file paths to ShellExecuteEx and the verb print. Adobe Reader is installed and registered for that verb. Reader by default creates a LNK shortcut file in the start menu:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Adobe Acrobat DC.lnk
Hide windows
By default, reader shows a GUI window when printing a PDF. Some customer doesn't want that window and simply tried to "hide" it by changing the LNK file content using Windows Explorer properties to at least minimize the windows by default. That customer didn't know if that works or not, one simply tried.
To my surprise this worked, changing the minimize vs. non-minimize/default setting of the LNK file made the reader windows being visible or minimized.
No changes in registry
I've searched the registry for changed settings regarding the print verb, but couldn't find any. The new setting really seemed to be only stored within the LNK file:
The registry contained references to the actual EXE only, not the LNK file. Pretty much like expected, I've never came across any shell verb registration using LNK files at all.
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" /p /h "%1"
Though, all invocations of the verb print seemed to recognize that setting, either manually using the context menu of some PDF in Windows Explorer or executing things on the shell:
powershell -Command "Start-Process -Verb print '\\?\C:\[...].pdf'"
Why is that important?
Adobe Reader provides the command line argument /h to minimize itself as well, but using that doesn't fully hide a window at all. Instead, a window is shown for a second or so and afterwards minimized, e.g. like Adobe is doing that itself. OTOH, with the changed LNK file things are different: Either really now window is shown at all or only some artifacts like the window title or alike for less than a second.
It really seems that the difference is between Adobe doing something on it own after it has loaded and stuff vs. Windows itself creating the minimized window already.
Additionally, if possible at all I would like to avoid customers needing to change the LNK file themself. The problem with that change is that it's not tied to the print verb only, but whenever Adobe Reader gets opened. And sometimes customers really need to have a look at PDFs themself instead of automatic printing only.
So, how does that work?
Is Windows itself using the setting of that LNK file or is this something implemented by Adobe Reader?
Using ProcMon, I couldn't find any hint about that Adobe Reader itself reads the LNK file. As well, I couldn't find this behaviour documented in the topics about shell verbs, ShellExecuteEx etc. It's totally unexpected to me, as the LNK file is some arbitrary file in theory, which might not exist at all, can be named as one likes, even multiple of those could exist in theory starting different apps of some package or the same app with different arguments etc.
Thanks for any insights.
When a Windows batch file is launched via a shortcut (from the Start Menu, for example), its window will typically receive the title of the shortcut.
Is it possible for the batch file to determine the name of its own window?
This question is related to Can a Windows batch file determine its own file name?, but that question asks if the batch file can determine its own filename. I am asking if a batch file can determine its own window name.
StackOverflow user QcFe lent a kind hand by finding this QA on Superuser: https://superuser.com/questions/1155853/how-to-get-the-window-title-text-from-batch-file
The short answer is that Windows provides no simple and direct way for batch files to accomplish this task.
Windows provides the internal title command to set the window title, but no way to retrieve it. (Which is disappointing, because it would be such a simple addition to the title command.)
The functionality can be attained using PowerShell or possibly tasklist, but for the latter, there are issues that need to be addressed if there are more than one command shell window open.
I elected to force the window to have a unique name using the Title command. That way I could reference it correctly for tools that need to know the window title, such as NirSoft's excellent nircmd utility.
I have spent a very long time researching this. Most of the solutions were posted PRIOR to April 2018, and involved working your way through the "settings" to get to "Choose default Apps by file type".
Choose default Apps by file type
In previous attempts to assign an app to ".rex" I managed to assign it to Notepad. (At that time, I could not find any way to find an ".exe" on my C: drive.)
So as you can see, if you click on Notepad next to the .rex extension, the only option is to go to the "App store".
And as expected, if you click on App store, nothing is found...
App store - no app's found.
So from what I've read in multiple forums, PRIOR to April 2018, Windows 10 still had a way to "browse your hard drive" to find an ".exe". (Just like in older Windows versions.) After some update in April 2018, that capability no longer exists.
In the POST April 2018, has anyone found a way to assign a file extension to an ".exe" on the hard drive???
I think this question would be more suitable for SuperUser (well, unless you want to do it via a program :) ).
Anyway, here's a way of doing things from console (Cmd). I've tried it 1 or 2 years ago, I just tried it now, so it works regardless of Win (10) version.
Start the process from scratch:
Open a Command Prompt window. Create a new file that the OS doesn't know anything about. I chose the extension .zzz:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.228]
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>dir /b
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: Create a dummy .zzz file
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>echo Some dummy text>file.zzz
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>dir /b
file.zzz
Try opening the file (DblClick) from a file browser (it's not relevant, but I use Total Commander), or by typing its name in Cmd. That will yield the dreaded dialog:
Create a new file type and associate our extension with it. [MS.Learn]: assoc utility is used to do the job. First, check if such association doesn't already exist:
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: No output means no association
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>assoc | findstr ".zzz"
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: Same command for a different extension
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>assoc | findstr ".txt"
.dic=txtfile
.exc=txtfile
.log=txtfile
.scp=txtfile
.txt=txtfile
.wtx=txtfile
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: Create a new FileType (ZZZFile) and associate our extension with it
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>assoc .zzz=ZZZFile
.zzz=ZZZFile
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>assoc | findstr ".zzz"
.zzz=ZZZFile
No change when trying to open the file.
Associate the file type (ZZZFile, from previous step) with a command. Use the [MS.Learn]: ftype tool for the task. Again, check if the file type is not already associated (this only makes sense if the file type existed before previous step):
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: As usual, no output means no association
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>ftype | findstr ZZZFile
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: Same thing for txtfile
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>ftype | findstr txtfile
txtfile=%SystemRoot%\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE %1
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>:: Associate ZZZFile with notepad
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>ftype ZZZFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe %1
ZZZFile=C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe %1
e:\Work\Dev\StackOverflow\q052008516>ftype | findstr ZZZFile
ZZZFile=C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe %1
Try opening the file again (from Cmd), and voilà:
Summary:
In order to open with Notepad files having .zzz extension, there are only 2 commands that need to be remembered from this whole (and pretty long) answer:
assoc .zzz=ZZZFile
ftype ZZZFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe %1
Notes:
My user has (super) administrative privileges, but I guess they shouldn't impact differently depending where the action is performed from (Cmd or UI (if possible)), in other words users that don't have the required privileges, won't be able to do it, no matter what they would try
Apparently, there is a (pretty dark) nebula on this topic, that my knowledge wasn't yet able to "decipher". In my example, I constantly compare the .zzz results to .txt. Yet a big surprise: Notepad++ and not Notepad is used to open txtfile (.txt only), in spite of the above output
Update #0
I did a little more digging on the .txt mystery. Facts:
FType shows Notepad as opening program
It is actually opened by Notepad++ (in Cmd and PS)
In Choose default apps by file type, Notepad++ is shown
So apparently, it's more than meets the eye (over the years, I got used to MS's way of doing things which in some cases seems to be (but maybe it's me who didn't have all the pieces) illogical).
I've also found out many resources like:
[MS.Technet.Blogs]: Windows 10 – How to configure file associations for IT Pros? which mentions the command:
dism /online /export-defaultappassociations:"file.txt"
[XDADevelopers]: Programatically set default file associations which mentions the reg keys:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\${EXT}
HKCR\${EXT}
I couldn't find anywhere a clear algorithm of how an executable is chosen to run a file with a certain extension. I can think that the 2 keys above are queried, but I'm 100% sure there's more. Not to mention that I've ran into an even stranger problem (for a regular user on my Win 10), for .py files:
FType (and Assoc) reported everything as above
In Choose default apps by file type, Python was shown (just like in my Super Admin user's case)
Attempting to run the file from Cmd, yielded the dialog at the beginning
It worked from PS
Sadly, I selected Python from the dialog, before taking a look at the registry keys (and now it works), so I can't do any more debugging (and also, switching users is annoying).
Might be related:
[SuperUser]: Windows 10 won't let me set default apps for file extensions
[SuperUser]: Can't change Windows 10 default file type association
[SuperUser]: SSMS wont give up file associations
My programming teacher is requiring that everyone participate in the science fair this year, and now they accept computer-related projects. So, knowing only one language (Windows batch), I asked if I could make some kind of text based game in batch code. She said that I can only write the code, but not execute it.
She said that if we're even caught on the command prompt, we apparently get in big trouble and never get access to a school computer for the rest of the time I'm at the high school, or something like that... Even if all the code contains is a bunch of echos and simple variables, she won't let me and my partner run it. She also said that we must work on the project during school in her class.
So to sum all that up, she's letting me write a game/program, but I'm not allowed to test it to make sure it works in school, which will be when I'm writing it most...
So is there any way to run/test a batch script with simple echo and set /p commands without the "dangerous, black command prompt" showing up?
I think she has no idea what she's talking about, because on the board, she wrote "back script" lol
A batch file runs like any other executable file by double-clicking the file within Windows. However, because a batch file runs in a command line it immediately exits when done, so you may only see a black box for a second.
If the batch file is closing too fast, or you want to read the output from the batch file you can edit the batch file and add a pause to the end of the file. The pause command waits for user input before continuing.
A .BAT file can be made into a .EXE or .COM file to keep the program's source hidden from a user. You could use the .BAT to .EXE converter file to convert the batch files to .EXE file. In this program you can point to the batch file you want to convert into an executable file, include additional files, change the icon of the file, and add file details.
For Information on Batch files, this is one of the best resource.
Try this:
#echo off
color F0
mode con lines=25 cols=60
cls
title "Notepad - MyProgram.bat"
set /P "name=What is your name? "
echo Hello %name%, glad to see you...
pause
Execute it via a double click or enter in files browser...
I want to hide a bat file or its commands in a image file so when the image is opened the commands in the bat file is executed.
Assuming you're speaking specifically for the windows platform (what with "batch" files), you can't.
Batch files are parsed, not compiled, so an image file with batch in it would still be read as an image file.
I really can't sum it up more clearly than things just don't work like this.
However, assuming you're doing things ethically, you can re-associate, say, a .jpg extension to be opened with the command prompt and put your batch script in a text file with a .jpg extension.
Just a final note: Questions like these are often looked poorly upon by the StackOverflow members simply because you're hardly ever trying to achieve something like this with good intentions. I won't be the first to flame you, but I definitely won't be the last.
There are a number of ways in which a single file can contain two distinct streams of data which are independent of, and don't interfere with, each other. One commonly cited example of this is how it is possible to append a .zip file to a .jpg file and still have the combined file function as both types of files, depending on what sort of application is opening it. This trick takes advantage of the specific way jpeg and zip files are structured. These sorts of files are akin to polyglot program.
Another common method of embedding unrelated information into a file is steganography, which is the concealment of messages within mundane objects (like an image file.)
You might also consider using an Alternate Data Stream, though in such a case the batch file would arguably not be embedded in the image.
Once you have your batch file embedded, by whatever means, you must then find a way to cause the batch file to be run instead of--or in addition to--whichever image-viewing application the user has configured.
It can be safe to assume that the average user does not expect a file ending in .jpg (for example) to open a cmd.exe window and start executing unknown instructions. Windows Explorer, the application which under most circumstances decides what program to run when a certain file type is double clicked, has sane defaults (i.e. a .jpg file gets opened with an image viewing application) though these can be changed (though users generally don't change these sane defaults to insane customizations like cmd.exe.)
The simplest method would be to write your own handler program and cause it to become the default handler for image file types. I believe that all handler applications must be compiled PE application or library files (.exe, .dll, .scr, etc.) so another batch file won't work here. Your custom handler must reverse the embedding to retrieve the embedded batch file and then execute it with cmd.exe.
But if you've already managed to supplant the default handler with your own code then the embedded batch file is moot since you've already got your code running.
I have to echo what #Di-0xide said about this question. If you're trying to write a legitimate application and this is part of your design plan, then you need to go back to the drawing board because no legitimate application should ever do this sort of thing.
Although there are no doubt many more malace reasons why someone would want to embed a batch file within an image,
and have it execute when the image is opened. I can see at least one legitimate reason for wanting to perform the task.
What if you have a family computer, shared with your 2 kids, the wife, and yourself. Lets say you have some files you don't
want your children to come across, or a directory full of journal entries. It would be pretty neat if a simple batch file that would
change the attributes settings of the directory, containing the sensitive files. This way a parent could rest assure that their
kids wont stumble upon dads nudie pics. LOL
IE: Lets say someone wrote 2 simple batch files s.bat(to show the directory) and h.bat(to hide the directory)
hide.bat
#echo off
REM Show the directory containing sensitive info:
attrib +a +s +h +r C:\path\to\the\directory\to\hide
REM Hide this batch file(or image containing the batch file):
attrib +a +s +h +r C:\path\to\the\batch\files\hide.bat
REM Show a batch file(or image containing the batch file) that will allow for showing the directory:
attrib -a -s -h -r C:\path\to\the\batch\files\show.bat
show.bat
#echo off
REM Show the directory containing sensitive info:
attrib -a -s -h -r C:\path\to\the\directory\to\hide
REM Show the batch file(or image containing the batch file) that will allow user to hide directory:
attrib -a -s -h -r C:\path\to\the\batch\files\h.bat
REM Hide this batch file(or image containing the batch file):
attrib +a +s +h +r C:\path\to\the\batch\files\s.bat
I think it would work better having images that would execute the show.bat and hide.bat batch files, rather than just changing the icon on each batch file.
Perhaps writing a handler program that would change the attributes of the directory then open the image and associate the handler to some unused extension, would work.
Just a thought.
Simplest way to do this is to just create your batch file as normal and then create a desktop shortcut of the same batch file. Finally right-click on the shortcut and change the icon to what ever image you want. Once all changes are made then anytime the image is opened, the batch file will run.
This is easy just use winrar archive to embed bat file in image. This will run bat file before image or you can change settings to run image file before bat.
Follow this tutorial to do so:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvKVYYrqEw