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Let me start with some background. I work in a school district with about 300 laptops using win 10 pro. We are getting ready for our annual standardized testing which uses a lockdown browser. For whatever reason, the company created a new lockdown browser that does not close MSEdge that is running in the background. If you start the lockdown browser as soon as you log in, MSEdge is not an issue.

The provided solution by the software company is to change the registry entries for the test then change it back after the test. That seems like way too much work to me.

My first choice was to use kiosk mode, but it seems it does not work on win 10 pro. The solution I am working on now is to create a user specifically for the testing and use scheduled task at logon with a command to log off at exit. The basic concept seems to work for this situation, as long as the Laptops are plugged in. I can not seem to get the

New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet –AllowStartIfOnBatteries –DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries

to take effect. I suspect it has to do with the a missing argument, but I can not find any leads with Google searches.

I am using a batch file to call PowerShell and run the .PS1 file

.bat file

:: this Batch file which is run by double clicking in SMACS_IT account. calls powershell to 
start the task_kiosk.ps1. Which starts the proccess of creating the scheduled task for the 
user STAAR TEST to run TXSecureBrowser.


Powershell.exe -Command "& {Start-Process Powershell.exe -ArgumentList '-ExecutionPolicy 
Bypass -File C:\1kiosk\task_kiosk_ps1.ps1' -Verb RunAs}"

.PS1 file

$User = "STAAR TEST"
$Description = "A task created to launch the txsecurebrowser using the kiosk_bat.bat file when 
the user STAAR TEST logs in"
$taskName = "Launch TXSecureBrowser"
$taskExists = Get-ScheduledTask | Where-Object {$_.TaskName -like $taskName }
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute 'C:\1kiosk\kiosk_bat.bat'
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogOn -User "STAAR TEST"

$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet –AllowStartIfOnBatteries –DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries

if($taskExists) {
   Unregister-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskName -Confirm:$false 
}

Register-ScheduledTask -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -TaskName $taskName -Description 
 $Description -User $User


Set-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskName -Settings $settings

Using this code I can log in as the test account and the task starts the staar test as long as the laptop is plugged in. The task does not work if laptop is not plugged in. However, If I enter the command manually in PowerShell running as administrator the task will work if the laptop is not plugged in. Which is what leads me to believe that the .bat file needs another argument.

mklement0
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Kenneth Nagle
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  • Interesting I used the PowerShell function provided in this link https://community.idera.com/database-tools/powershell/powertips/b/tips/posts/converting-powershell-to-batch and ran the converted .PS! as admin. It worked as expected. – Kenneth Nagle Feb 05 '22 at 07:15
  • I followed the directions in this post to identify a single file. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46070152/how-to-run-powershell-command-in-batch-file/65911978#65911978 – Kenneth Nagle Feb 05 '22 at 07:17

1 Answers1

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It's been too many years since I worked with Task Scheduler, so I can't help you directly. But, I still have my working script from the time. We needed a webpage updated with a gate counter every couple of minutes and the script below is how I automated the configuring of the scheduled task.

Strip out everything you don't want, insert a few things you do want, and you should pretty much have it.

.CMD file

<# : BATCH Bootstrap for PowerShell
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
PowerShell -executionpolicy remotesigned -Command "Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock ([scriptblock]::Create($([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText('%~f0')))) -ArgumentList ([string]'%*').split()"
ENDLOCAL
GOTO :EOF
#>
# https://blog.netnerds.net/2015/01/create-scheduled-task-or-scheduled-job-to-indefinitely-run-a-powershell-script-every-5-minutes/
# Change these three variables to whatever you want
$jobname = "Gate Count Web Updater"
$script =  "C:\Users\Public\GateCountWebUpdater.cmd"
$repeat = (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 2)

# The script below will run as the specified user (you will be prompted for credentials)
# and is set to be elevated to use the highest privileges.
# In addition, the task will run every 5 minutes or however long specified in $repeat.
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction –Execute $script
$duration = (New-TimeSpan -Days (365 * 20))
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Once -At (Get-Date).Date -RepetitionInterval $repeat -RepetitionDuration $duration

$msg = "Enter the username and password that will run the task"; 
$credential = $Host.UI.PromptForCredential("Task username and password",$msg,"$env:userdomain\$env:username",$env:userdomain)
$username = $credential.UserName
$password = $credential.GetNetworkCredential().Password
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries -StartWhenAvailable -RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable -DontStopOnIdleEnd

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $jobname -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -RunLevel Highest -User $username -Password $password -Settings $settings
Darin
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