PowerShell Tricks - Starting Without a Console Window

04 December 2013

Running an unattended PowerShell script or command on a recurring schedule is a technique that can be quite useful. The task might involve capturing some performance data, sending an alert, or cleaning up some leftover files. Once a script is written, it’s easy enough to set up a scheduled task and pass it to PowerShell.exe with the -WindowStyle Hidden and -File parameters. The problem with this method is that the console window starts up with a small flash that can be disruptive/annoying if the computer is in use at the time.

Python on Windows solves this problem by having two separate executables (python.exe and pythonw.exe). The latter starts a Python instance that suppresses the console window, running the code in the background.

I wanted something similar for PowerShell.

While it’s certainly possible to write an application in C# perhaps that hosts the PowerShell runtime without a console window, going to that length felt like overkill. The solution that I found the most workable involved adapting some old VBScript to pass the required parameters through to the real PowerShell:

' PowerShellW.vbs - Runs Powershell with no console window
Dim objShell

If WScript.Arguments.Length = 0 Then
    WScript.Echo "No arguments specified"
    WScript.Quit
End If

strCmd = "powershell.exe -NoLogo -NonInteractive"

For Each strArg in WScript.Arguments
    If Left(strArg,1) = "-" Then
        strCmd = strCmd & " " & strArg
    Else 
        strCmd = strCmd & " " & Chr(34) & strArg & Chr(34)
    End If
Next

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run strCmd,0

Usage 1: Execute a script in the background

powershellw -NoProfile -File C:\Scripts\YourScriptName.ps1

Usage 2: Restart a group of services

powershellw -Command "Restart-Service YourServiceName*"

 PowerShell