Connecting to remote desktop using Psexec Tool works with Powershell and Cmd but it doesnt work in PowerShell ISE

Question

I use this command psexec \\ip_address -u user_name -p psw cmd to connect to remote desktop to run commands, it works when you use this in Power shell or command prompt but it doesn't work in Power shell ISE. I wont get any error in ISE but once the execution starts it never ends until you stop it.

Once the execution starts it never ends and doesn't connect to remote desktop, you wont get error either but it works perfectly on PowerShell or CMD.

Answer 1

Firstly, screen shots of code, really are not useful to us. It forces folks to have to retype what you did, which most are unwilling to do.

Because psexec is an interactive command tool. You can use it in the ISE, but you have to pass every param you need.

This is not a psexec limitation, try, say, nslookup and see the same issue. You cannot use many interactive DOS/CMD command in the ISE console or IDE script pane as you do in cmd/console. That is not its design.

This has been documented since the ISE release.

Console Application (Non) Support in the ISE

There are some limitations on how the ISE interacts with console applications you need to be aware of, for apps like ftp and netsh.

First of all, the ISE Runs console apps that don’t require user input just fine. For example, “ping www.microsoft.com” and “cmd /c dir /s”

Piping also works fine in the ISE, For example, PS C:\Users\ibrar> “show mode” | netsh netsh>online

Automation in scripts, that don’t require user interventions should be fine.

However, if you run “cmd /k” which requires input, the ISE will be stuck, and you’ll have to stop the pipeline, using Ctrl-Break or pressing the stop button.

You can shell out to the console host as needed to do such things using the Start-Process cmdlet. or one of the other start methods.

See:

Running Executables in PowerShell | IT Pro

5. The Call Operator & Technet

Why: Used to treat a string as a SINGLE command. Useful for dealing with spaces.

In PowerShell V2.0, if you are running 7z.exe (7-Zip.exe) or another command that starts with a number, you have to use the command invocation operator &.

The PowerShell V3.0 parser do it now smarter, in this case you don’t need the & anymore .

Details: Runs a command, script, or script block. The call operator, also known as the "invocation operator," lets you run commands that are stored in variables and represented by strings. Because the call operator does not parse the command, it cannot interpret command parameters

Example: 

& 'C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe' "c:\videos\my home video.avi" /fullscreen

So your psexec..

& 'C:\Tools\psexec.exe' "Your command arguments" /accepteula