I am using nant, but this can apply to any thing, I just want to know if there is a way to set windows cmd or console2 or some kind of shell to give me a popup or make a noise when it is "finished" (i.e. when it is waiting and the screen says >C:\User\Random_FILE_PATH>_)
I'm using windows 7.
Valentine
sorry, to clarify, I am not running a script that I created, this is just when running anything in the console. I would like it to be that anytime my console is waiting for me it creates a pop up or a noise. This would ideally be some kind of setting
You may open a message box in the end of your batch file, using WSH with a simple VBScript or JScript. See Show a popup/message box from a Windows batch file for an example.
c:\> my_command & mshta.exe vbscript:Execute("msgbox ""finished"",0,""finished"":close")
this here uses conditional execution - when my_command is finished the mshta.exe will be executed with arguments in the brackets.As the parameter passing here is not so easy the string given to msgbox will not be displayed.
you can add a beep to your prompt:
set prompt=%prompt%^G
Don't type ^G. To get it, keep your alt-key pressed while entering 0 0 7 on your numeric keyboard.
Related
This question already has answers here:
Prevent VBscript app from showing Console Window
(1 answer)
How can I run a command silently in VBScript? [duplicate]
(1 answer)
Closed 3 years ago.
I need to run this old telnet scripting client silently in the background. You run it from cmd providing arguments for:
1- a file containing the commands to send
2- a file where to print any output
3- whether to run it minimized to taskbar or not
(note: if it is run without arguments, it displays a help window)
So this is what I type in cmd, and it works like a charm:
TST10.exe /r:mycommands.txt /o:myoutputfile.txt /m
What I can't achieve however, is running it completely hidden in the background. Now, since this program requires arguments, I tried to first achieve this only on the help window that gets spawned (ie: running it without arguments).
I tried with VBScripts using carefully all the answers here. It always starts normally (not hidden). These VBScripts all succeed to hide other programs though.
I also tried with this program that starts processes hidden, oddly enough it only succeeds in hiding the the telnet client from the taskbar. Also, even if it would completely hide it, I still have no idea on how to pass the mentioned arguments.
edit:
How is this even CLOSE to "Prevent VBscript app from showing Console Window" or "How can I run a command silently in VBScript?"? This question VERY clearly asks how to run a normal .exe program in a hidden manner which is not even slightly related to running a VBscript without showing the console or running a command silently in VBScript. + I even stated that the only way to achieve this USING VBScipt (not hiding a VBScript itself) doesn't work. Are the accounts marking this as duplicate bots that simply detect "VBScript" and "hide program" and assume that I want to hide an executing VBScript? Or can they simply not understand English?
Try this... create a run.js or something (make sure you give it a .js extension). Place this line inside the .js:
WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run("notepad.exe", 0);
Run it. You should see notepad.exe running in your task manager, but it's window should be hidden. Now try the same with your app instead.
So I've done some digging to try and find a way to run a script in the background on startup. The only solution I've found is to use:
Set WinScriptHost = Nothing
Is this a reasonable way to do it? Or could it cause some issues? I mean, from what I can tell, it just stops WinScriptHost from being used to refer to an object. But I feel like that could cause trouble in some scripts. So, should I avoid using this method and do something else?
Thanks!
CScript is for console windows, consoles programs by their definitions have a console. WScript is for GUI programs, unlike console programs, windows are optional (although almost all programs will create a hidden main window if not creating a visible window, as windows are how Windows communicates with a program).
Using WshShell.Run, which has a window style parameter, you can run cmd hidden eg cmd /c cscript script.vbs.
It is possible to set up Windows so that it displays verbose messages during startup or shutdown.
I'm writing a VBScript procedure which will be ran at startup and I would like to display a meaning message instead of the default "Running startup scripts".
How to achieve this in VBS?
You need to use Windows administrative tools which allow you to configure start up for specific users or users group to execute anything on start-up, shutdown even change their backgrounds. Network policy maybe useful for that as well if you are on domain controlled environment.
Also you can use MSCONFIG on a single system to add or define what ever you want to run at startup, for as long as it is valid windows program.
Once you configured what script to run use Windows console (run that under wscript.exe) to execute your VBS file with what ever you want to put there (with wscript you will get dialog with your text in it).
Usually it should look like
Wscript.Echo "Meaningful message goes here"
If you run that under cscript.exe you'll get output in your console window.
I need to write a huge VBscript to automatically run an application and I'm looking for a way to comfortably monitor what I'm actually doing, in other words, to display the values of some/all variables involved in my script.
I'm used to work with Matlab, where I have a comfortable workspace browser. When I run a Matlab script, all variables, their types and their values are accessible in that workspace and can be checked.
The VBscript I write with Notepad++ (it needs to be a free editor) and the only way I found to display variables was echoing them via wscript and cscript.
I set up the shortcuts.xml with the following line to run my script directly from Notepad++:
<Command name="Run with CScript" Ctrl="yes" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="116">cmd /K %windir%\system32\cscript.exe "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)"</Command>
In case I include commands in my script like
Wscript.Echo myVar
Wscript.Echo "Hello World!"
and run it with the newly introduced shortcut, a cmd window pops up and displays the value of myVar and "Hello World!".
But the next time I run the script a new window pops up. So my question is:
Is it possible get a continuously opened output window, displaying all echoed values everytime I run a script? I actually want to put the window on a second screen and keep the values from previous runs. So I can enter a line Wscript.Echo something, run, check, enter something else and so on, without fiddling around with a bunch of opened windows.
Alternatively, is there any open-source/free editor which offers an accessible workspace like the one in Matlab?
The open-source editor SciTE offers what I was looking for.
The default settings in vb.properties enable a similar behavior like in Notepad++
command.build.$(file.patterns.wscript)=cscript "$(FilePath)"
command.build.subsystem.$(file.patterns.wscript)=1
One can change it as follows to get the output into the integrated console.
command.go.$(file.patterns.wscript)=cscript.exe //nologo "$(FilePath)"
command.go.subsystem.$(file.patterns.wscript)=0
F5 runs the script and Shift+F5 cleans the output.
Another option is the NppExec Plugin for Notepad++ suggested by #Ansgar Wiechers, which adds a console. The script can be run with cscript.exe /nologo "$(FULL_CURRENT_PATH)" then.
Use a debugger. Start your script with the (meta)option //X. If you are lucky, you already have installed software (MS Office, Visual Studio (Express)) that provides a debugger for VBScript. If not do a bit of research to find an Express version suitable to your OS.
You can almost write native VBScript in the VBA editor, so if you have Excel or whatever you can use this to debug, then go through some steps to convert back to VBScript. That's what I usually do.
Note: This is a question-with-answer in order to document a technique that others might find useful, and in order to perhaps become aware of others’ even better solutions. Do feel free to add critique or questions as comments. Also do feel free to add additional answers. :)
How can I display a messagebox by typing a single Windows command, e.g. in the Run dialog from the Start menu, or in the [cmd.exe] command interpreter?
One way is to use apparently undocumented functionality, namely that [mshta.exe], the runtime engine for Windows .hta HTML applications, accepts a general URL as command line argument, including a javascript: protocol URL:
mshta "javascript:var sh=new ActiveXObject( 'WScript.Shell' ); sh.Popup( 'Message!', 10, 'Title!', 64 );close()"
This command can be issued in e.g. [cmd.exe]], or e.g. in the Run dialog from the Start menu, perhaps combined with the schtasks command to create a tea-timer…
The above messagebox times out after 10 seconds, but specifying a 0 second timeout means “don’t time out”, producing a more ordinary persistent messagebox.
For a simpler messagebox you can instead use the alert function provided by the MSHTA host.
on command prompt:
msg %username% Message
interesting parameters are:
/w (wait for user)
/time:<seconds>
Found that if you copy msg.exe from a Win7 Pro machine to a Win7 Home machine it works. Copy msg.exe to and from the C:\Windows\System32 folder.
What if you create a small VBScript with the message you want to display?
I.e. create e file, named "Message.vbs" with the content:
MsgBox "Some info here", 0, "Message Title"
and call it like this:
cscript.exe PATH\Message.vbs