Powershell - Can it be determined if a script is run by right click "run with powershell"?

Question

Background: I wrote a little script for our 1st level tech support that does some validation (naming convention/ip address range) and updates dns records for the printer ranges.

It takes input from the command line Or a file, and if no input is given on the command line it prompts from within the script.

The original issue was that the script just executed and closed when a user right clicked the update-PrinterDNS.ps1 and "run with PowerShell". Adding a pause statement at the end of the script allows the user to see the output. However this throws a wrench into the automation side when the script is called and passed parameters.

I've considered adding a -noPause switch to the command line, or pushing out a shortcut that calls PowerShell with -noExit, but those seem more like workarounds instead of solutions.

the Question:) I'd like to know if it can be determined within the script if it was started by the 'run with windows PowerShell' in order to conditionally pause at the end.

Answer 1

Run with PowerShell has the following command line (by default, subject to change in future versions, etc.):

powershell.exe "-Command" "if((Get-ExecutionPolicy ) -ne 'AllSigned') { Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass }; & '%1'"

You can see how you were called in the $MyInvocation variable.

Another way is to check the execution policy, which is explicitly set here. Unless you started PowerShell with -ExecutionPolicy Bypass the following will only be true for the case when your script was run via the context menu:

(Get-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process) -eq 'Bypass'

As far as hacky workarounds go, I'd say this should work for a while. No guarantees, though.