Powershell scheduled job; Internet Explorer not visible

Question

I'm trying to create a PS logon script that will listen to a serial port, pass on the data to its original application, parse the data, and use the result to open an internal server and display an information page relating to the data.

I've gotten it working from an active powershell session, but when I run it as a scheduled task I can't see the IE that it calls. I know that it is actually loading and performing login and lookup because I can see a new user session created on our internal webpage, and each time I feed the serial port a new barcode scan I can see that it passes it on towards the originally intended application.

I've seen some discussion on TechNet that seems to indicate that using IE in this way isn't possible, but then how is it managing to login to the site?

# Variables
$username = ""
$password = ""
$meterno = ""
$rawmeterno = ""
$ReceivePort = "COM6"
$SendPort = "COM7"


Function Initialize () {
$global:RCport = $null
$global:SNport = $null

$global:RCport = new-object system.io.ports.serialport $ReceivePort,9600,none,8,one
$global:RCport | add-member -membertype "NoteProperty" -name "identifier" -value "ReceiveSerial"
$global:RCport.open()
#$global:RCport
$global:SNport = new-object system.io.ports.serialport $SendPort,9600,none,8,one
$global:SNport | add-member -membertype "NoteProperty" -name "identifier" -value "SendSerial"
$global:SNport.open()
#$global:SNport
}

Function ParseMeter($rawmtr){
$meter = $rawmtr |
 %{
  if ($_ | sls -pattern "SD") {
   ([regex]"[0-9]{5}SleepDrinks").matches($_) | % {$_.value}}
  elseif ($_ | sls -pattern "TD/TR") {
   $TD = ([regex]"[T]Drinks[/][T][R][0-9]{3}").matches($_) | %{$_.value}
   $TD = ($TD -replace "/TR", "")
   $TD}
  else {$_ | % { $_.tostring().split()[1] }}
  }
write-host "ParseMeter result: $meter `n"
$meter
}

Function Main {
 Do{ 
  $rawmeterno = $global:RCport.readline()
  write-host $rawmeterno
  $meterno = $rawmeterno | %{ParseMeter($_)}
  $global:SNport.writeline("$rawmeterno")

  #check for ie
  $ie
  if (!($ie)) {
   $ie = New-Object -com InternetExplorer.Application
   $ie.visible=$true
   sleep -s 2}#if
  $ie.navigate2("http://server/endpointlookup.aspx")
  sleep -s 2
  $ie.locationname
  $ie

  #login
  if ($ie.locationname -eq "http://server/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fcc%2fendpointlookup.aspx") {
   sleep -s 2
   write-host "Login Function"
   $ie.visible = $true
   $ie.navigate2("http://server/login.aspx")
   while($ie.busy) {start-sleep -s 2}
   $ie.document.getElementById("LoginName").value= $username
   sleep -s 1
   $ie.document.getElementById("Password").value = $password
   sleep -s 1
   $ie.document.getElementById("LoginBtn").click()
   sleep -s 3
   while($ie.busy) {start-sleep -s 2}

   #lookup
   $ie.navigate2("http://server/endpointLookup.aspx")
   while($ie.ReadyState -ne 4) {start-sleep -s 1}
   sleep -s 1
   $meterno
   $ie.document.getElementById("ctl00_PageBody_MeterNumberBox").value = $meterno
   write-host "meterno assigned"
   sleep -s 2
   $ie.document.getElementById("ctl00_PageBody_RetrieveButton").click()
   write-host "button clicked"
   sleep -s 2
   write-host "about to assign 'details' to variable"
   $details = @( $ie.document.getelementsbytagname('a')) | where-object {$_.innerText -eq 'Details'}
   $details
   write-host "variable assigned, about to click"
   $details.click()
   write-host "details clicked"
   Trap{"$_" ; $global:SNport.close(); $global:SNport.dispose(); $global:RCport.close(); $global:RCport.dispose(); $ie.quit() ;sleep -s 2; Break }
  }#if

  #lookup
  else { 
   $ie.navigate2("http://server/endpointLookup.aspx")
   while($ie.ReadyState -ne 4) {start-sleep -s 1}
   write-host "Lookup Function"
   $ie.visible = $true
   $ie.document.getElementById("ctl00_PageBody_MeterNumberBox").value = $meterno
   write-host "Meterno assigned"
   sleep -s 1
   $ie.document.getElementById("ctl00_PageBody_RetrieveButton").click()
   write-host "clicked GO"
   sleep -s 1
   $elsedetails = @( $ie.document.getelementsbytagname('a')) | where-object {$_.innerText -eq 'Details'}
   write-host "variable assigned, about to click"
   $elsedetails.click()
   write-host "details clicked"
   Trap{"$_" ; $global:SNport.close(); $global:SNport.dispose(); $global:RCport.close(); $global:RCport.dispose(); $ie.quit() ;sleep -s 2; Break }
   }#else
 }#do
 while ($global:RCport.isopen -eq $true)
}#function - Main

Initialize
sleep -s 2
Main

The scheduled task is set to run at login, elevated. And I'm testing this on Win7(64) using IE10 and PS 4.0.

As you can see in the script, I set IE to visible in several places. Any ideas?

Thanks for any feedback!

Can you see IExplore.exe running in the background when you login? What account is it running under? — TheMadTechnician, Sep 03 '14 at 18:14

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '14 at 20:03

0

You won't see any Internet Explorer windows from a scheduled task. Even though it is running as you, it isn't running in your session, but in the scheduled task's session.

Update your code to log what it is doing to a file, event log, or some other data sink so you get some visibility into what it is doing.

answered Sep 03 '14 at 20:03

Aaron Jensen

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Or just create a shortcut that runs the script in your Startup folder in the start menu. – TheMadTechnician Sep 03 '14 at 20:29
Odd. In order to add logging to the script ( following this post: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13784382/how-to-redirect-powershell-output-when-run-from-task-scheduler ) I had to manually create the task in task scheduler. The previous one was built using register-scheduledjob from within powershell. Now it seems to be working correctly; I can see IE no problem. – JayCee Sep 03 '14 at 20:53
It would seem that creating the scheduled task from within task scheduler allows the Internet Explorer object to be seen and register-scheduledjob prevents it. Not sure why, but this resolves the problem, so I'll mark this as answered. Thanks Aaron! – JayCee Sep 03 '14 at 21:14

Powershell scheduled job; Internet Explorer not visible

1 Answers1