How do I run a PowerShell script when the computer starts

Question

I have a PowerShell script that monitors an image folder  I need to find a way to automatically run this script after the computer starts   I already tried the following methods  but I couldn t get it working    Use msconfig and add the PowerShell script to startup  but I cannot find the PowerShell script on that list  Create a shortcut and drop it to startup folder  No luck    SystemRoot  SysWOW64 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe -File  C  Doc Files FileMonitor ps1    or   SystemRoot  system32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe -File  C  Doc Files FileMonitor ps1    Here s my PowerShell script    folder    C   Doc  Files   dest    C   Doc  Files  images   filter      jpg    fsw   new-object System IO FileSystemWatcher  folder   filter -Property        IncludeSubDirectories  false     NotifyFilter    System IO NotifyFilters  FileName  LastWrite      onCreated   Register-ObjectEvent  fsw Created -SourceIdentifier FileCreated -Action        Start-Sleep -s 10     Move-Item -Path C  Doc Files   jpg C  Doc Files images    I also tried to add a basic task using taskschd msc  It is still not working   Here s what I found  and maybe that will help to debug it   If I open up a PowerShell window and run the script there  it works  But if I run it in a command prompt   powershell exe -File  C  Doc Files FileMonitor ps1    It will not work  I am not sure it s a permission problem or something else   BTW  I have PowerShell 3 0 installed  and if I type  host version  it will show 3 there  But my powershell exe seems like it is still v1 0    SystemRoot  system32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe

User · Answer

I finally got my PowerShell script to run automatically on every startup. You will need to create two files: the first is the Powershell script (e.g. script.ps1) and the second is a .cmd file that will contain commands that will run on the command prompt (e.g. startup.cmd).

The second file is what needs to be executed when the computer starts up, and simply copy-pasting the .ps1 to the startup folder won't work, because that doesn't actually execute the script - it only opens the file with Notepad. You need to execute the .cmd which itself will execute the .ps1 using PowerShell. Ok, enough babbling and on to the steps:

Create your .ps1 script and place it in a folder. I put it on my desktop for simplicity. The path would look something like this:

C:\Users\<user_name>\Desktop\script.ps1

Create a .cmd file and place it in

C:\Users\<user_name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\startup.cmd

Doing this will execute the cmd file every time on startup. Here is a link of how to create a .cmd file if you need help.

Open the .cmd file with a text editor and enter the following lines:

PowerShell -Command "Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted" >> "%TEMP%\StartupLog.txt" 2>&1
PowerShell C:\Users\<user_name>\Desktop\script.ps1 >> "%TEMP%\StartupLog.txt" 2>&1

This will do two things:

Set the Execution Policy of your PowerShell to Unrestricted. This is needed to run scripts or else PowerShell will not do it.
Use PowerShell to execute the .ps1 script found in the path specified.

This code is specifically for PowerShell v1.0. If you're running PowerShell v2.0 it might be a little different. In any case, check this source for the .cmd code.

Save the .cmd file

Now that you have your .ps1 and .cmd files in their respective paths and with the script for each, you are all set.

User · Answer

You could set it up as a Scheduled Task  and set the Task Trigger for  At Startup

User · Answer

If you do not want to worry about execution policy  you can use the following and put into a batch script   I use this a lot when having techs at sites run my scripts since half the time they say script didnt work but really it s cause execution policy was undefined our restricted   This will run script even if execution policy would normally block a script to run  If you want it to run at startup   Then you can place in either shell startup for a single user or shell common startup for all users who log into the PC     cmd exe  c Powershell exe -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -File  c  path to script ps1   Obviously  making a GPO is your best method if you have a domain and place in Scripts  Startup Shutdown   under either Computer or User Configurations Windows Settings Scripts  Startup Shutdown   If you go that way make a directory called Startup or something under          yourdomain com netlogon    and put it there to reference in the GPO   This way you know the DC has rights to execute it   When you browse for the script on the DC you will find it under      C  Windows SYSVOL domain scripts Startup    since this is the local path of netlogon

User · Answer

Execute PowerShell command below to run the PowerShell script  ps1 through the task scheduler at user login      Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName  SOME TASKNAME  -Trigger  New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogon  -Action  New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute    Env WinDir  System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe  -Argument  -WindowStyle Hidden -Command    amp   C  PATH TO FILE ps1      -RunLevel Highest -Force       -AtLogOn - indicates that a trigger starts a task when a user logs on       -AtStartup - indicates that a trigger starts a task when the system is started    -WindowStyle Hidden - don t show PowerShell window at startup  Remove if not required   -RunLevel Highest - run PowerShell as administrator  Remove if not required   P S      If necessary execute PowerShell command below to enable PowerShell scripts execution       Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope LocalMachine -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Force    Bypass - nothing is blocked and there are no warnings or prompts   Unrestricted - loads all configuration files and runs all scripts  If you run an unsigned script that was downloaded from the internet  you re prompted for permission before it runs

User · Answer

Be sure  whenever you want PowerShell to run automatically   in the background   non-interactive  it   s a good idea to specify the parameters -ExecutionPolicy Bypass to PowerShell exe  PowerShell exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

User · Answer

You can see scripts and more scheduled for startup inside Task Manager in the Startup tab  Here is how to add a new item to the scheduled startup items    First  open up explorer to shell startup location via start-button    run      explorer shell startup   Right click in that folder and in the context menu select a new shortcut  Enter the following       C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe -NoProfile   -Command  C  myfolder somescript ps1    This will startup a Powershell script without starting up your  profile scripts for faster execution  This will make sure that the powershell script is started up    The shell startup folder is in       env APPDATA Microsoft Windows   And then into the folder      Start Menu Programs Startup   As usual  Microsoft makes things a bit cumbersome for us when a path contains spaces  so you have to put quotes around the full path or just hit tab inside Powershell to autocomplete in this case

User · Answer

You could create a Scheduler Task that runs automatically on the start  even when the user is not logged in   schtasks  create  tn  FileMonitor   sc onstart  delay 0000 30  rl highest  ru system  tr  powershell exe -file C  Doc Files FileMonitor ps1    Run this command once from a PowerShell as Admin and it will create a schedule task for you  You can list the task like this   schtasks  Query  TN  FileMonitor   V  FO List   or delete it  schtasks  Delete  TN  FileMonitor

User · Answer

Prerequisite  1  Start powershell with the  quot Run as Administrator quot  option 2  Enable running unsigned scripts with  set-executionpolicy remotesigned  3  prepare your powershell script and know its path   path    quot C  Users myname myscript ps1 quot   Steps  1  setup a trigger  see also New-JobTrigger  PSScheduledJob  - PowerShell   Microsoft Docs  trigger   New-JobTrigger -AtStartup -RandomDelay 00 00 30  2  register a scheduled job  see also Register-ScheduledJob  PSScheduledJob  - PowerShell   Microsoft Docs Register-ScheduledJob -Trigger  trigger -FilePath  path -Name MyScheduledJob  you can check it with Get-ScheduledJob -Name MyScheduledJob 3  Reboot Windows  restart  r  and check the result with  Get-Job -name MyScheduledJob  see also Get-Job  Microsoft PowerShell Core  - PowerShell   Microsoft Docs References   How to enable execution of PowerShell scripts  - Super User Use PowerShell to Create Job that Runs at Startup   Scripting Blog

User · Answer

I have a script that starts a file system watcher as well  but once the script window is closed the watcher dies   It will run all day if I start it from a powershell window and leave it open  but the minute I close it the script stops doing what it is supposed to  You need to start the script and have it keep powershell open  I tried numerous ways to do this  but the one that actually worked was from http   www methos-it com blogs keep-your-powershell-script-open-when-executed  param    Show   if     Show          PowerShell -NoExit -File  MyInvocation MyCommand Path 1     return     Pasting that to the top of the script is what made it work  I start the script from command line with  powershell exe -noexit -command   amp   path to script ps1

User · Answer

A relatively short path to specifying a Powershell script to execute at startup in Windows could be    Click the Windows-button  Windows-button   r   Enter this       shell startup    Create a new shortcut by rightclick and in context menu choose menu item  New  Shortcut Create a shortcut to your script  e g        C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe -NoProfile -Command  C  Users someuser Documents WindowsPowerShell Scripts somesscript ps1    Note the use of -NoProfile  In case you put a lot of initializing in your  profile file  it is inefficient to load this up to just run a Powershell script  The -NoProfile will skip loading your profile file and is smart to specify  if it is not necessary to run it before the Powershell script is to be executed   Here you see such a shortcut created   lnk file with a Powershell icon with shortcut glyph

User · Answer

This is really just an expansion on  mjolinor simple answer  Use Task Scheduler   I knew  quot Task Scheduler quot  was the correct way  but it took a bit of effort to get it running the way I wanted and thought I d post my finding for others  Issues including   Redirecting output to logs Hiding the PowerShell window  Note  You must have permission to run script see ExecutionPolicy Then in Task Scheduler  the most important tricky part is the Action It should be Start a Program Program Script  powershell  Add arguments  optional    -windowstyle hidden -command full path script ps1  gt  gt   quot  TEMP  StartupLog txt quot  2 gt  amp 1 Note  If you see -File on the internet  it will work  but understand nothing can be after -File except the File Path  IE  The redirect is taken to be part of the file path and it fails  you must use -command in conjunction with redirect  but you can prepend additional commands arguments such as -windowstyle hidden to not show PowerShell window  I had to adjust all Write-Host to Write-Output in my script as well

User · Answer

What I do is create a shortcut that I place in shell startup   The shortcut has the following   Target  C  Windows System32 WindowsPowerShell v1 0 powershell exe -Command  C  scripts script ps1    replacing scripts scripts ps1 with what you need   Start In  C  scripts    replacing scripts with folder which has your script

User · Answer

Copy ps1 into this folder  and create it if necessary  It will run at every start-up  before user logon occurs    C  Windows System32 GroupPolicy Machine Scripts Startup   Also it can be done through GPEDIT msc if available on your OS build  lower level OS maybe not

User · Answer

Try this  Create a shortcut in startup folder and iuput  PowerShell   amp   PathToFile script ps1     This is the easiest way

User · Answer

This worked for me  Created a Scheduled task with below details  Trigger   At startup  Actions  Program script   powershell exe Arguments   -file

[powershell] How do I run a PowerShell script when the computer starts?

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