{"id":596,"date":"2008-08-12T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sapien.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/12\/powershell-msgbox\/"},"modified":"2008-08-12T11:12:21","modified_gmt":"2008-08-12T19:12:21","slug":"powershell-msgbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/12\/powershell-msgbox\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerShell MsgBox"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you came from the VBScript world you may be missing a few old friends in PowerShell. Because Powershell is a management console, it lacks a GUI unless you create one using Windows forms. Things will change a bit in PowerShell v2.0 but for now let’s stick with what we have.\u00a0 If you really need a message box, ala VBScript, then simply call it from PowerShell.\u00a0 All you need to do is use the [microsoft.visualbasic.interaction] class and the MsgBox method.<\/p>\n

Before you can use it, you will likely need to load the .NET assembly:<\/p>\n

PS C:\\> [reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname(“microsoft.visualbasic”) | Out-Null <\/span><\/p>\n

Once loaded you can call a message box as easy as this:\"basicmsgbox\"<\/a><\/p>\n

PS C:\\> [microsoft.visualbasic.interaction]::MsgBox(“Hello everyone”)
\nOk
\nPS C:\\><\/span><\/p>\n

As you can see it is a barebones message box.<\/p>\n

The MsgBox method supports all the things you remember from VBScript like different buttons, a title and icons. Valid button choices include: OkOnly, OkCancel, AbortRetryIgnore, YesNoCancel, YesNo, RetryCancel. There are a few other options but these are the ones you are most likely to use. Valid icons include: Critical, Question, Exclamation, Information.<\/p>\n

Here is a function to create a message box and sample code that demonstrates it.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
   1:<\/span> Function Show-Msgbox {<\/pre>\n
   2:<\/span>   Param([string]$message=$(Throw \"You must specify a message\"<\/span>),<\/pre>\n
   3:<\/span>       [string]$button=\"okonly\"<\/span>,<\/pre>\n
   4:<\/span>       [string]$icon=\"information\"<\/span>,<\/pre>\n
   5:<\/span>       [string]$title=\"Message Box\"<\/span><\/pre>\n
   6:<\/span>      )<\/pre>\n
   7:<\/span><\/pre>\n
   8:<\/span> # Buttons: OkOnly, OkCancel, AbortRetryIgnore, YesNoCancel, YesNo, RetryCancel<\/span><\/pre>\n
   9:<\/span> # Icons: Critical, Question, Exclamation, Information<\/span><\/pre>\n
  10:<\/span><\/pre>\n
  11:<\/span>   [reflection.assembly]::loadwithpartialname(\"microsoft.visualbasic\"<\/span>) | Out-Null<\/pre>\n
  12:<\/span><\/pre>\n
  13:<\/span>   [microsoft.visualbasic.interaction]::Msgbox($message,\"$button,$icon\"<\/span>,$title)<\/pre>\n
  14:<\/span><\/pre>\n
  15:<\/span>  }<\/pre>\n
  16:<\/span><\/pre>\n
  17:<\/span> $rc=Show-Msgbox -message \"Do you know what you're doing?\"<\/span> `<\/pre>\n
  18:<\/span> -icon \"exclamation\"<\/span> -button \"YesNoCancel\"<\/span> -title \"Hey $env:username!!\"<\/span><\/pre>\n
  19:<\/span><\/pre>\n
  20:<\/span> Switch ($rc) {<\/pre>\n
  21:<\/span>  \"Yes\"<\/span> {\"I hope your resume is up to date.\"<\/span>}<\/pre>\n
  22:<\/span>  \"No\"<\/span> {\"Wise move.\"<\/span>}<\/pre>\n
  23:<\/span>  \"cancel\"<\/span> {\"When in doubt, punt.\"<\/span>}<\/pre>\n
  24:<\/span> }<\/pre>\n
  25:<\/span><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
If you execute this you should expect a result like this:<\/p>\n
\"pshmsgbox\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The MsgBox method will write the name of the clicked button to the pipeline. This allows me to save the MsgBox results to a variable and use a Switch construct to take action based on the value:<\/p>\n
$rc=Show-Msgbox -message “Do you know what you’re doing?” `
\n-icon “exclamation” -button “YesNoCancel” -title “Hey $env:username!!” <\/span><\/p>\n
Switch ($rc) {
\n“Yes” {“I hope your resume is up to date.”}
\n“No” {“Wise move.”}
\n“cancel” {“When in doubt, punt.”}
\n}<\/span><\/p>\n
You’re probably thinking, “This is great but where’s my Inputbox?” Don’t worry.\u00a0 It’s coming assuming you don’t figure it out on your own.<\/p>\n
\n
You can download this sample function and script here<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
if you came from the VBScript world you may be missing a few old friends in PowerShell. Because Powershell is a management console, it lacks a GUI unless you create one using Windows forms. Things will change a bit in PowerShell v2.0 but for now let’s stick with what we have.  If you really need a message box, ala VBScript, then simply call it from PowerShell.  All you need to do is use the [microsoft.visualbasic.interaction] class and the MsgBox method.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,25],"tags":[198,268,28,269,996],"class_list":["post-596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vbscript","category-windows-powershell","tag-function","tag-msgbox","tag-powershell","tag-switch","tag-vbscript"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.sapien.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}