How to finish this batch script after set /p not allowing

Question

Hi,

I found this post which does exactly what I need but the 2nd part doesn't work and when I try run it plan in cmd I get the following error "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

In short, I'm trying to run a script which is being run by a schedule for every time I log in or out of the pc it should record the time and date to a csv, so I have 2 scripts
1 when I login which goes like this "set /p = %DATE%, %TIME% >> D:\Users\USER2\desktop\log-1.csv"
2 when I logout it goes like this "echo %TIME% >> D:\Users\USER2\desktop\log-1.csv" but the 2nd one doesn't run

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Assuming that you are using a .bat file and not Powershell, you missed the "< nul" part.

That post also commented about what the log looks like if the PC crashes and a logoff event is not written. You will have the same issue. To work around that, you will have use that trick on both logon and logoff scripts.

In the logon script, write a new line first.

@echo.>> D:\Users\USER2\desktop\log-1.csv
set /p =%computername%,%username%,%TIME:~0,5%,%date%,< nul >> D:\Users\USER2\desktop\log-1.csv

The logoff script.

set /p =%TIME:~0,5%,%date%< nul >>D:\Users\USER2\desktop\log-1.csv

Answer 2

PowerShell doesn't use "set" to create environment variables. "Set" is a PowerShell alias for the "Set-Variable" cmdlet. Nor does PowerShell reference environment variables in the same way that the cmd.exe shell does (by surrounding them with "%" characters. In your example, to get the time and date you'll use Get-Date.

If you say "set /p = "AAA"" you'll get an error: Set-Variable : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'AAA'. If you say "Set /p AAA" (without the "=") you'll create a variable named "/p" with a value of "AAA". However, because there's a "/" in the name you'll find it hard to use that variable in the normal way -- you'll have to use "Get-Variable /p -ValueOnly"

PowerShell references environment variables by prefixing the name with "Env:". See about_Environment_Variables. about_environment_variables