Executing files via Powershell

Question

Hi,

I want to write a powershell script to execute all the files in a directory, by alphabetical order. Problem is, I also want to execute each file in the directory. How can I do this last bit?

Thanks

Answer 1

gci | ?{$_ -is [io.fileinfo]} | ii

You can use the path parameter of Get-ChildItem to chose the directory.

Update: Limited selection to only files. Was all items in a directory.

Answer 2

Use get-childitem to find all the items in the directory you want. You can then convert this list into a list of strings where each string is the name of a file.

Then use the "&" operator to execute each file.

I.E.

gci | select name | foreach-object { & $_.tostring() } 

something like that.

See: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee176949.aspx

Answer 3

I would use:

Get-ChildItem -filter *.exe |
    Invoke-Item

You asked for only the programs in a directory. The IO.FileInfo answer will open word documents as well as run programs. So will the answer with &. You don't have to sort alphabetically, because that's how the files come back anyways, but you could put a Sort-Object in the middle if you'd like.

Hope this helps,