Launching VSCode with Powershell script prevents Powershell from exiting

Question

I'm trying to write a Powershell script that automates setting up my work environment each day. To do this, I have the following two scripts.

Set-Window.ps1

Function Set-Window {
<#
.LINK
https://superuser.com/questions/1324007/setting-window-size-and-position-in-powershell-5-and-6
#>
[cmdletbinding(DefaultParameterSetName='Name')]
Param (
    [parameter(
        Mandatory=$False,
        ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True, 
        ParameterSetName='Name'
    )]
    [string]$ProcessName='*',
    [int]$X,
    [int]$Y,
    [int]$Width,
    [int]$Height,
    [switch]$HideWindow
)
Begin {
    Try { 
        [void][Window]
    } Catch {
    Add-Type @"
        using System;
        using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
        public class Window {
            [DllImport("user32.dll")]
            [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
            public extern static bool MoveWindow( 
                IntPtr handle, int x, int y, int width, int height, bool redraw);
        [DllImport(&quot;user32.dll&quot;)]
        [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
        public extern static bool ShowWindowAsync(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
    }

"@
    }
}
Process {
    If ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('ProcessName')) {
        $Processes = Get-Process -Name "$ProcessName"
    } else {
        throw 'No processes match criteria specified'
    }
If ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('HideWindow')) {
    $Processes | ForEach-Object {
        # 0 is the value that represents &quot;hide&quot;.
        # see https://community.idera.com/database-tools/powershell/powertips/b/tips/posts/show-or-hide-windows
        # for more details
        [Window]::ShowWindowAsync($_.MainWindowHandle, 0)
    }
} else {
    $Processes | ForEach-Object {
        [Window]::MoveWindow($_.MainWindowHandle, $X, $Y, $Width, $Height, $True)
    }
}

}
}

Start-Work.ps1

. C:\Users\<username>\Projects\Personal\PowerShell\Set-Window.ps1
Start all necessary applications
Start-Process "C:\Users&lt;username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" '--log=off'
Start-Process Chrome '--profile-directory="Profile 2"'
Start-Process "C:\Users&lt;username>\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Spotify.exe"
Start-Process "C:\Users&lt;username>\AppData\Roaming\Zoom\bin\Zoom.exe"
Start-Process "C:\Users&lt;username>\AppData\Local\slack\slack.exe"
Some applications can be moved right away, but still best to wait a bit
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
Set-Window -ProcessName Spotify -X 400 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Chrome -X 200 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Slack -X 600 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Others need a more time to load everything
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
Set-Window -ProcessName Code -X 0 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Zoom -HideWindow
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500
Exit

To run these scripts, I created a shortcut with the target set to C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy remotesigned -File C:\Users\<username>\Projects\Personal\PowerShell\Start-Work.ps1, and I pinned that shortcut to my taskbar. When I click the shortcut, everything runs as expected with one exception: the PowerShell program never closes. Based on the output that is occasionally being written to the console, I assume this is because of VSCode. I've been able to demonstrate this by running a simple .ps1 script that only opens VS Code and can observe that it opens a PowerShell window. This doesn't happen, though, if I simply run Start-Process Code from an open PowerShell Window.

So, with all of that being said, does anyone know how I can force the PowerShell window to actually close?

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 14 '22 at 15:42

It seems like VS Code might be keeping the standard output stream open. I had the same behavior as you, but I was able to get powershell to close by redirecting the output to a file instead:

Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" '--log=off' `
  -RedirectStandardOutput "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\output.log"
exit

it does create a file, but the file is empty - I never had any output being written to the console though.

Launching VSCode with Powershell script prevents Powershell from exiting

Start all necessary applications

Some applications can be moved right away, but still best to wait a bit

Others need a more time to load everything

1 Answers1