Use Powershell to automate a windows program

Question

Use Powershell to automate a windows program

Manny 151

Hi

I have a windows program to download stock prices. There is no command line version of it. Is it possible to use Powershell to do the following:

start program
press download button or alt button plus d
wait (for program to download prices) this can take about 5 minutes or so
press close button
exit program

If yes, how would I do it?

Thank you

Manny 151

Hi @Rich Matheisen . Can you please help me with this? I got this far:

Start-Process -FilePath "program path"  
$ProcId = (Get-Process program_name).id  
Sleep -Seconds 60  # give the program 1 minute to open  
$wshell = new-object -com wscript.shell  
$wshell.AppActivate("program_name")  
$wshell.Sendkeys("%d")  
Sleep -Seconds 600 # give the program 10 minutes to finish the download  
# select Convert button  
#$wshell.Sendkeys("%c")  
#Sleep -Seconds 600 # give the program 10 minutes to convert the data to CSV  
Stop-Process $ProcId

Manny 151 Reputation points

2022-02-05T23:32:21.887+00:00

There is a button called "Convert" that doesn't appear to be accessible via keyboard shortcuts. I have to use my mouse to select it. Is there a way to select that button by searching for the text "Convert". Once found then press enter? Thank you
Rich Matheisen 47,901 Reputation points

2022-02-06T03:00:12.49+00:00

Using the "tab" key to navigate to that button doesn't work? Arrow keys? Is there a default key, like "enter" that would activate that key?

If it's a web page you can probably see exactly what's on the page, either with a program like Fiddler or by "screen scraping" (there are a good number of results in a web search for "powershell screen scrape").

If it's an executable I think you'd have to get contents of the window. It used to be pretty easy to do with character-based applications. I expect it's a lot harder to do with graphics.
Manny 151 Reputation points

2022-02-06T05:49:16.247+00:00

Thanks for the reply @Rich Matheisen

It is an exe file. Is there any way to search for that button in the window?
Rich Matheisen 47,901 Reputation points

2022-02-06T15:34:20.547+00:00

There's no easy way to do that. You'd have to resort to the use of APIs.

Have you looked into the use of mouse and keyboard recorders?
Manny 151 Reputation points

2022-02-06T19:25:17.39+00:00

Thanks @Rich Matheisen
I was hoping to use Powershell because that way I don't have to install any new programs. If it can't be done in Powershell then I can definitely use other programs. Do you have any suggestions on which ones to try?
Rich Matheisen 47,901 Reputation points

2022-02-06T20:28:56.357+00:00

I don't use this but have a look at Microsoft's "Power Automate". It's probably overkill for what you're looking to do, though. I haven't used a mouse/keyboard recorder since dirt was white. So, no, I don't have any recommendations for one.

You, however, should get the vendor of your EXE and complain about the lack of compliance to the way almost every other application works. Lacking a mouse, the program's unusable!
Manny 151 Reputation points

2022-02-07T01:10:32.64+00:00

Thank you @Rich Matheisen
I will take a look
aj-47 66 Reputation points

2022-02-07T03:54:07.12+00:00

I suspect the application goes to a Web service/URL to get prices?
How about you explore invoke-webRequest cmdlet and export downloaded prices to a file