Launching VSCode with Powershell script prevents Powershell from exiting

Question

I'm trying to write a Powershell script that automates setting up my work environment each day. To do this, I have the following two scripts.

Set-Window.ps1

Function Set-Window {
<#
.LINK
https://superuser.com/questions/1324007/setting-window-size-and-position-in-powershell-5-and-6
#>
[cmdletbinding(DefaultParameterSetName='Name')]
Param (
 [parameter(
 Mandatory=$False,
 ValueFromPipelineByPropertyName=$True, 
 ParameterSetName='Name'
 )]
 [string]$ProcessName='*',
 [int]$X,
 [int]$Y,
 [int]$Width,
 [int]$Height,
 [switch]$HideWindow
)
Begin {
 Try { 
 [void][Window]
 } Catch {
 Add-Type @"
 using System;
 using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
 public class Window {
 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 public extern static bool MoveWindow( 
 IntPtr handle, int x, int y, int width, int height, bool redraw);
 [DllImport("user32.dll")]
 [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
 public extern static bool ShowWindowAsync(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
 }
"@
 }
}
Process {
 If ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('ProcessName')) {
 $Processes = Get-Process -Name "$ProcessName"
 } else {
 throw 'No processes match criteria specified'
 }
 If ($PSBoundParameters.ContainsKey('HideWindow')) {
 $Processes | ForEach-Object {
 # 0 is the value that represents "hide".
 # see https://community.idera.com/database-tools/powershell/powertips/b/tips/posts/show-or-hide-windows
 # for more details
 [Window]::ShowWindowAsync($_.MainWindowHandle, 0)
 }
 } else {
 $Processes | ForEach-Object {
 [Window]::MoveWindow($_.MainWindowHandle, $X, $Y, $Width, $Height, $True)
 }
 }
}
}

Start-Work.ps1

. C:\Users\<username>\Projects\Personal\PowerShell\Set-Window.ps1
# Start all necessary applications
Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" '--log=off'
Start-Process Chrome '--profile-directory="Profile 2"'
Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Spotify\Spotify.exe"
Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Zoom\bin\Zoom.exe"
Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\slack\slack.exe"
# Some applications can be moved right away, but still best to wait a bit
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
Set-Window -ProcessName Spotify -X 400 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Chrome -X 200 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Slack -X 600 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
# Others need a more time to load everything
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
Set-Window -ProcessName Code -X 0 -Y 0 -Height 600 -Width 1200
Set-Window -ProcessName Zoom -HideWindow
Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 500
Exit

To run these scripts, I created a shortcut with the target set to C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy remotesigned -File C:\Users\<username>\Projects\Personal\PowerShell\Start-Work.ps1, and I pinned that shortcut to my taskbar. When I click the shortcut, everything runs as expected with one exception: the PowerShell program never closes. Based on the output that is occasionally being written to the console, I assume this is because of VSCode. I've been able to demonstrate this by running a simple .ps1 script that only opens VS Code and can observe that it opens a PowerShell window. This doesn't happen, though, if I simply run Start-Process Code from an open PowerShell Window.

So, with all of that being said, does anyone know how I can force the PowerShell window to actually close?

• mashuptwice: stackoverflow.com/questions/42222004/run-exe-in-background
• brittenb: @mashuptwice - That seems to just hide VSCode and keep it running in the background, which isn't what I want. What I want is for the PowerShell window that launches when I run the shortcut I created to Exit when it reaches the Exit line of Start-Work.ps1, but instead it just sits there listening. And if I close the window manually, it also closes VS Code.
• mashuptwice: Interesting, I thought Start-Job behaves like daemonizing a process with & in linux.
• mashuptwice: Start-Job or Start-Process seem to be the way to go as mentioned here: stackoverflow.com/questions/63531764/… and here: stackoverflow.com/questions/185575/…

Answer 1

It seems like VS Code might be keeping the standard output stream open. I had the same behavior as you, but I was able to get powershell to close by redirecting the output to a file instead:

Start-Process "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\Code.exe" '--log=off' `
 -RedirectStandardOutput "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\output.log"
exit

it does create a file, but the file is empty - I never had any output being written to the console though.

• brittenb: This seems to have solved the issue. Thank you!