Run Multiple Script Instances - winforms

Question

I work in an operations center with 10 screens on each computer. The main computer shows a lot of telemetry data and dashboards, graphs, animations, and a lot of other useful information via Chrome in a browser window. This is tedious to set up every time you reboot the computer, so I was very happy to find this original project: Chrome-Kiosk from https://alextomin.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/kiosk-mode-in-windows-chrome-on-multiple-displays/
It works very well as an auto starter in our operations center, so I am happy with that aspect of its functionality. But then I got to thinking: wouldn't it be useful if I could somehow temporarily display a webpage on the board, and have it close after a set time period so that the whole office can monitor an important event.
What I came up with is quite cool so far, and the people at work think that it is very useful, BUT, it needs more features. These are simple but I am stuck, I have been trying to figure this out for a while now. Below is the code that I am using.
Things that I can't get to work:
Kill Timer: I can get this to work by adding start-wait in front of the kill function that I have created, but that makes the looper.ps1 script sit and wait while the launcher.ps1 completes. How can I get the script to run without making the looper script stop until the other script finishes?
How can I track each new instance of Chrome that gets opened? Using the system ID does not seem to work, the best I can do is get-process and sort by chrome and the newest instance, which means that I can kill chrome instances that are younger than the timer value, but I am struggling to get this to work.
Any advice here would be appreciated.
SERVER SCRIPTS
I have put these into a folder called c:\scripts\ICVT
looper.ps1 - This will run constantly
Set-Location -Path C:\scripts\ICVT
while ($true) {
.\file_checker.ps1;
}
file_checker.ps1 - This is the script that looper runs. file_checker scans the folder for web.txt and mon.txt . Both must be present for the rest of the script to execute.
#Checks folder for web.txt and mon.txt . Both must be present for the rest of the script to execute
Set-Location -Path C:\scripts\ICVT
$a = Test-Path web.txt
$b = Test-Path mon.txt
if (($a -and $b -eq $True)) {
.\launcher.ps1
} else {
Write-Host "Scanning For Files"
}
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
launcher.ps1 - This is just a modified version of the original script
$chromePath = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'
$chromeArguments = '--new-window'
$web = (Get-Content -Path web.txt)
$mon = (Get-Content -Path mon.txt)
$timer = (Get-Content -Path $timer.txt)
# if Window not moved (especially on machine start) - try increasing the
# delay.
$ChromeStartDelay = 5
Set-Location $PSScriptRoot
. .\HelperFunctions.ps1
Chrome-Kiosk $web -MonitorNum $mon
#Delete parameters after use
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
del web.txt
del mon.txt
del timer.txt
Here is the GUI that creates the web.txt, timer.txt and mon.txt files over the network
Set-Location -Path \\networkpc\folder
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
[System.Windows.Forms.Application]::EnableVisualStyles()
# Hide PowerShell Console
Add-Type -Name Window -Namespace Console -MemberDefinition '
[DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 nCmdShow);
'
$consolePtr = [Console.Window]::GetConsoleWindow()
[Console.Window]::ShowWindow($consolePtr, 0)
function button ($1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9, $10, $11) {
$Form = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Form";
$Form.ClientSize = '653,436'
$Form.text = "Display Board URL Tool"
$Form.TopMost = $false
$form.StartPosition = [System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition]::CenterScreen;
$iconBytes = [Convert]::FromBase64String($iconBase64)
$stream = New-Object IO.MemoryStream($iconBytes, 0, $iconBytes.Length)
$stream.Write($iconBytes, 0, $iconBytes.Length);
$iconImage = [System.Drawing.Image]::FromStream($stream, $true)
$Form.Icon = [System.Drawing.Icon]::FromHandle((New-Object System.Drawing.Bitmap -Argument $stream).GetHIcon())
$Button1 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button1.text = "Screen 1"
$Button1.width = 132
$Button1.height = 77
$Button1.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(8,14);
$Button1.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button2 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button2.text = "Screen 2"
$Button2.width = 132
$Button2.height = 77
$Button2.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(165,14);
$Button2.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button3 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button3.text = "Screen 3"
$Button3.width = 132
$Button3.height = 77
$Button3.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(326,14);
$Button3.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button4 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button4.text = "Screen 4"
$Button4.width = 132
$Button4.height = 77
$Button4.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(483,15);
$Button4.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$WinForm1 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Form";
$WinForm1.ClientSize = '653,400'
$WinForm1.text = "Form"
$WinForm1.TopMost = $false
$Button5 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button5.text = "Screen 5"
$Button5.width = 132
$Button5.height = 77
$Button5.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(8,117);
$Button5.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button6 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button6.text = "Screen 6"
$Button6.width = 132
$Button6.height = 77
$Button6.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(165,119);
$Button6.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button7 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button7.text = "Screen 7"
$Button7.width = 132
$Button7.height = 77
$Button7.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(326,119);
$Button7.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button8 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button8.text = "Screen 8"
$Button8.width = 132
$Button8.height = 77
$Button8.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(483,119);
$Button8.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button9 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button9.text = "Screen 9"
$Button9.width = 132
$Button9.height = 77
$Button9.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(9,220);
$Button9.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button10 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button10.text = "Screen 10"
$Button10.width = 132
$Button10.height = 77
$Button10.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(165,220);
$Button10.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button11 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button11.text = "Screen 11"
$Button11.width = 132
$Button11.height = 77
$Button11.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(326,220);
$Button11.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$TextBox1 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.TextBox";
$TextBox1.multiline = $false
$TextBox1.width = 400
$TextBox1.height = 20
$TextBox1.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(220,314);
$TextBox1.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$TextBox2 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.TextBox";
$TextBox2.multiline = $false
$TextBox2.width = 50
$TextBox2.height = 20
$TextBox2.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(220,348);
$TextBox2.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Label1 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Label";
$Label1.text = "Display Time (Minutes)"
$Label1.AutoSize = $true
$Label1.width = 25
$Label1.height = 10
$Label1.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(15,348);
$Label1.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Label2 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Label";
$Label2.text = "URL for Timed Monitoring"
$Label2.AutoSize = $true
$Label2.width = 25
$Label2.height = 10
$Label2.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(15,314);
$Label2.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button12 = New-Object "system.Windows.Forms.Button";
$Button12.text = "Kill Current Screen"
$Button12.width = 132
$Button12.height = 77
$Button12.location = New-Object "System.Drawing.Point"(483,220);
$Button12.Font = 'Microsoft Sans Serif,10'
$Button12.ForeColor = "#d0021b"
$Form.controls.AddRange(#($Button1,$Button2,$Button3,$Button4,$Button5,$Button6,$Button7,$Button8,$Button9,$Button10,$Button11,$TextBox1,$TextBox2,$Label1,$Label2,$Button12))
############# This is when you have to close the form after getting values
$eventHandler1 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '1'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler2 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '2'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler3 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '3'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler4 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '4'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler5 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '5'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler6 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '6'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler7 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '7'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler8 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '8'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler9 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '9'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler10 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '10'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler11 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Create mon.txt per button
$text = '11'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$eventHandler12 = [System.EventHandler]{
$textBox1.Text;
$textBox2.Text;
############# Kill the last Screen that was launched
$text = '1'
$text | Set-Content 'mon.txt'
$form.Close();};
$button1.Add_Click($eventHandler1) ;
$button2.Add_Click($eventHandler2) ;
$button3.Add_Click($eventHandler3) ;
$button4.Add_Click($eventHandler4) ;
$button5.Add_Click($eventHandler5) ;
$button6.Add_Click($eventHandler6) ;
$button7.Add_Click($eventHandler7) ;
$button8.Add_Click($eventHandler8) ;
$button9.Add_Click($eventHandler9) ;
$button10.Add_Click($eventHandler10) ;
$button11.Add_Click($eventHandler11) ;
$button12.Add_Click($eventHandler12) ;
#############Add controls to all the above objects defined
$form.Controls.Add($button1);
$form.Controls.Add($button2);
$form.Controls.Add($button3);
$form.Controls.Add($button4);
$form.Controls.Add($button5);
$form.Controls.Add($button6);
$form.Controls.Add($button7);
$form.Controls.Add($button8);
$form.Controls.Add($button9);
$form.Controls.Add($button10);
$form.Controls.Add($button11);
$form.Controls.Add($textLabel1);
$form.Controls.Add($textLabel2);
$form.Controls.Add($textBox1);
$form.Controls.Add($textBox2);
$ret = $form.ShowDialog();
#################return values
return $textBox1.Text, $textBox2.Text
}
#Creates the 3 txt files for web, mon and timer
$return = button "Monitoring Screen Selector" "Enter URL" "Enter Screen # from 1 to 11"
if ($return[0] -ne "") {
$return[0] > web.txt
}
if ($return[0] -eq "") {
exit
}
if ($return[1] -ne "") {
$return[1] > timer.txt
}
if ($return[1] -eq "") {
exit
}
#multiply by 60 to get minutes
if (Test-Path timer.txt) {
if ((Get-Item timer.txt).Length -gt 0kb) {
$result = Get-Content timer.txt
60 * $result > timer.txt
}
}

Answer 1

In order to do a lot of that functionality, you first need to get a Process Id for the Chrome window. In order to do that we need to make a few changes to the Chrome-Kiosk function to return that information. First I change the Start-Process to include the -PassThru parameter. That way I get a process object that I can get the PID from. Another edit to Get-Process to use the Id instead of "chrome", and finally we Write-Output the $Process object.
function Chrome-Kiosk($Url, $MonitorNum)
{
Write-Output "starting chrome $Url , monitor: $MonitorNum"
$Process = Start-Process $chromePath "$chromeArguments $Url" -PassThru
Start-Sleep -Seconds $ChromeStartDelay
$window = (Get-Process -Id $Process.Id | where MainWindowHandle -ne ([IntPtr]::Zero) | select -First 1).MainWindowHandle
$WinAPI::ShowWindow($window, [Tomin.Tools.KioskMode.Enums.ShowWindowCommands]::Restore)
$Helpers::MoveToMonitor($window, $MonitorNum)
$Helpers::SendKey($window, '{F11}')
Start-Sleep -Seconds $ChromeStartDelay
Write-Output $Process
}
The rest of the work is to modify the launcher script to have a kill timer. Essentially we pull the .txt deletion portion back into your file_checker.PS1 script so that we can launch the launcher.ps1 as a new self contained PowerShell process.
file_checker.PS1
#Checks folder for web.txt and mon.txt . Both must be present for the rest of the script to execute
Set-Location -Path C:\scripts\ICVT
$a = Test-Path web.txt
$b = Test-Path mon.txt
IF (($a -and $b -eq $True)) {
. .\launcher.ps1
#Delete parameters after use
del web.txt
del mon.txt
del timer.txt
}
else {
Write-Host "Scanning For Files"
}
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
By using the modified Chrome-Kiosk function, where it returns the Process object of the Chrome window, we can now have the launcher script launch, sleep, and then kill only the Chrome window that we launched:
launcher.ps1
$chromePath = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe'
$chromeArguments = '--new-window'
$web = (Get-Content -Path web.txt)
$mon = (Get-Content -Path mon.txt)
$timer = (Get-Content -Path $timer.txt)
# if Window not moved (especially on machine start) - try increasing the
# delay.
$ChromeStartDelay = 5
Set-Location $PSScriptRoot
. .\HelperFunctions.ps1
$Process = Chrome-Kiosk $web -MonitorNum $mon
#Wait some period of time
Start-Sleep -Seconds 60
#Kill the process
Stop-Process $Process