Launching PowerShell Scripts Invisibly

There is no a built-in way to launch a PowerShell script hidden: even if you run powershell.exe and specify -WindowStyle Hidden, the PowerShell console will still be visible for a fraction of a second.

To launch PowerShell scripts hidden, you can use a VBScript, though:

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
path = WScript.Arguments(0)

command = "powershell -noprofile -windowstyle hidden -executionpolicy bypass -file """ & path & """"

objShell.Run command,0

Save this as test.vbs, and make sure you save it with ANSI encoding (use Notepad and choose the encoding in the bottom dropdown list in the SaveAs dialog). VBScript cannot handle scripts saved in UTF8 encoding. When you try and run such a script, you get an exception complaining about invalid characters.

To launch a PowerShell script invisibly, this is the command to run:

Note that while wscript.exe is hiding the PowerShell console window, any WPF window you are opening, i.e. by using Out-GridView, will continue to work and display as before.

Wscript.exe c:\pathtovbs.vbs c:\pathtoPS1file.ps1

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