Start-Process powershell.exe with an argument

Question

How do I start a new powershell instance and tell that instance to execute a certain command?

What I've tried:

(Assuming vim.exe and file.txt is in cwd)

Start-Process powershell.exe .\vim.exe .\file.txt

vim.exe is the parameter to powershell.exe

file.txt is the parameter to vim.exe

Error says:

Start-Process : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 
'.\file.txt'.At line:1 char:1
+ Start-Process powershell.exe .\vim.exe .\file.txt
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [Start-Process], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.StartProcessCommand

I've also tried powershell.exe -ArgumentList {.\vim.exe .\file.txt} and no dice.

`Start-Process powershell.exe -ArgumentList ".\vim.exe .\file.txt"`? — 4c74356b41, Jan 26 '17 at 22:23
@4c74356b41 hmmm, it started without with an error and instantly quit. `-noexit` isn't working either so I can't see the error — Kellen Stuart, Jan 26 '17 at 22:55
Possible duplicate of [Positional Parameter error in powershell script](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39407004/positional-parameter-error-in-powershell-script) — Jim G., May 17 '18 at 16:15

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '17 at 00:55

The Argument list is an array... say start-process doesn't know what to do with .\file.txt

Here is how I would write it

 Start-Process powershell.exe -ArgumentList @('.\vim.exe', '.\file.txt')

The following will also work, but I like the above where you explicitly say you want an array

 Start-Process powershell.exe -ArgumentList '.\vim.exe', '.\file.txt'

Start-Process powershell.exe with an argument

1 Answers1