Launch a PowerShell session and/or run a PowerShell script.
Syntax
powershell[.exe] [-File FilePath Args] [-NoProfile]
[-Command { - | script-block [-args arg-array] | string [CommandParameters] } ]
[-PSConsoleFile file | -Version version] [-NoExit] [-Sta] [-Mta]
[-InputFormat {Text | XML}] [-OutputFormat {Text | XML}]
[-NoLogo] [-WindowStyle Style] [-NonInteractive]
[EncodedCommand Base64EncodedCommand] [-ExecutionPolicy ExecutionPolicy]
powershell[.exe] -Help | -? | /?
Key
-File Execute a script file. The filename is required.
If the file/pathname contains spaces then surround with double quotation marks:
-file "path to\your script.ps1"
-Command Execute commands or a script file of commands as though they
were typed at the PowerShell prompt, and then exit, unless -NoExit is specified.
The value of Command can be "-", a string. or a script block.
If Command is "-", the command text is read from standard input.
If the value of Command is a script block, the script block must be enclosed
with { curly parenthesis }.
Specify a script block only when running PowerShell.exe from PowerShell.
If the value of Command is a string, it must be the last parameter
in the command , any characters typed after command are interpreted
as the command arguments.
To write a string that runs a PowerShell command, use the format:
"& {command}"
-PSConsole File Load a PowerShell console file. (created with export-console)
-Version Start the specified version of Windows PowerShell.
-NoLogo Hide the copyright banner at startup.
-NoExit Do not exit after running startup commands.
-Sta Start the shell using a Single-Threaded Apartment.
-Mta Start the shell using a Multi-Threaded Apartment.
-NoProfile Do not load the PowerShell profile. So no pre-defined functions will be available.
When setting up a scheduled job, using -NoProfile can be a quick way
to document the fact that nothing special in the profile is needed.
It also ensures that any future profile changes will not affect the job.
-Noninteractive Don't present an interactive prompt to the user.
-InputFormat Format of data sent to Windows PowerShell. Valid values are
"Text" (string) or "XML" (serialized CLIXML format).
-OutputFormat Format the output. Valid values are "Text" (string)
or "XML" (serialized CLIXML format).
-WindowStyle Set the window style to Normal, Minimised, Maximised or Hidden.
-EncodedCommand Accepts a base-64 encoded string version of a command, Use this to
submit commands to PowerShell that require complex quotation marks
or curly braces.
-ExecutionPolicy Set the default execution policy for the session.
-Help, -?, /? Display Help
Standard Aliases for Powershell_ISE.exe: ise
When launching a .ps1 script you may wish to specify -noprofile to make sure that the script runs in a default PowerShell environment and does not load any profile scripts.
In Windows Explorer, you can type "powershell" in the address bar to open a PowerShell prompt at the current location.
From a CMD shell rather than running PowerShell within the command prompt, you might want to open a separate PowerShell window - so use START POWERSHELL.
When running PowerShell.exe -Command script-block you don't need to add quotes around the script-block.
For example: PowerShell.exe -Command Get-Service wuauserv everything after -Command is passed to PowerShell,
Hhowever when calling Powershell.exe from the CMD.exe shell (a common requirement) you will need to escape some characters which have a special meaning in CMD:
To create an icon/shortcut which can launch PowerShell and execute a script, you can use a simple batch script which calls PowerShell.exe:
::LAUNCHER.CMD @Echo off Cls Pushd %~dp0 C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -windowstyle Hidden ./your-script.ps1 PopdThis assumes that your-script.ps1 is in the same folder as the batch file.
If you want to see output/errors from the script omit the -windowstyle Hidden
The Pushd and Popd commands ensure that it works even if run directly from a UNC path.
By default, running PowerShell will launch a 64 bit process C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
if you run a 64 bit shell (typically C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe) and then launch PowerShell it will launch the 64 bit PowerShell.
However if you run a 32 bit shell (C:\windows\syswow64\cmd.exe) and then launch PowerShell, you will launch the 32 bit version of PowerShell (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\PowerShell.exe)
To run the 64 bit version (which is supported by syswow64) from a 32 bit process, use the sysnative path:
%SystemRoot%\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exeWhen launching one PowerShell session from another, this script will check the version of PowerShell running and will relaunch itself as 64-bit if you are running in 32-bit.
To run PowerShell and run a script
powershell.exe -Command Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-File C:\demo\MyScript.ps1' -Verb RunAsThis runs powershell.exe -Command and then a powershell cmdlet
Note this first invocation of PowerShell is not elevated. The cmdlet we run is Start-Process and we use this to run a second copy of PowerShell, this time elevated through the use of the -verb runas option.
The parts in bold above are elevated. Because this is being run under a new elevated session it is important to pass the full path to the script.
The Start-Process options -NoNewWindow and -Verb RunAs cannot be combined as that would elevate the already running session.
For more details see the elevation page which includes a self-elevating PowerShell script.
If you are calling one PowerShell session from another, this is a non issue, but if you are calling PowerShell from a CMD batch file and the command contains quotation marks, they must be escaped: " becomes \"
The \ is an escape character that is required due to PowerShell's use of CommandLineToArgvW to parse input arguments. [x]powershell.exe -Command Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -File \"C:\long name\test one.ps1\"' -Verb RunAsExtending the above to pass quoted arguments to the script:powershell.exe -Command Start-Process PowerShell -ArgumentList '-NoProfile -File \"C:\long name\test two.ps1\" \"Arg1\" \"Arg2\"' -Verb RunAsA less readable alternative to backslash escapes is triple quotes """Arg1"""
The -EncodedCommand parameter for powershell.exe, allows passing PowerShell code as a base-64-encoded string.
First place your code into a variable:
$scriptblock = { # place the commands here Write-Output 'This is just a demo' }Then encode the variable:
$encoded = [convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetBytes($scriptblock))Now we can launch Powershell.exe and pass the encoded commands:
powershell.exe -NoProfile -EncodedCommand $encoded
In PowerShell the exit code is stored in the automatic variable $LASTEXITCODE.
To read exit codes (other than 0 or 1) launch the PowerShell script and return the $LASTEXITCODE in a single line like this:
powershell.exe -noprofile C:\scripts\script.ps1; exit $LASTEXITCODE
Examples
Run a script (non elevated)
PowerShell.exe -Command C:\demo\MyScript.ps1
Load a console and run a Script:
PowerShell.exe -PSConsoleFile "C:\scripting\MyShell.psc1" -Command ". 'MyScript.ps1'"
Run a command to display the security event log:
powershell.exe -command {get-eventlog -logname security}
Or the same thing but calling PowerShell from the CMD shell:
powershell.exe -command "& {get-eventlog -logname security}"
Run a simple calculation and return (supports Long numbers):
powershell.exe 200000000*2
PS.cmd - a simple batch file to launch PowerShell with less typing:
@echo off
Powershell.exe %*
“If you want to launch big ships you have to go where the water is deep” ~ Anon
Related PowerShell Cmdlets:
List of all PowerShell cmdlets
PWRSH - Launch PowerShell core.
Convert-PowerShellToBatch - Encode a PowerShell script to base64, this allows it to be run as a batch script you can double click. (Idera).
Equivalent bash command: bash - launch bash shell.