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https://github.com/mavaddat/wasp

Windows Automation Snapin for PowerShell
https://github.com/mavaddat/wasp

Last synced: 11 days ago
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Windows Automation Snapin for PowerShell

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# WASP

Logo, an abstract illustration of a wasp positioned in front of Windows PowerShell logo WASP is a PowerShell snapin for Windows Automation tasks like selecting windows and controls and sending mouse and keyboard events. WASP has [automation cmdlets](#automation-cmdlets) like `Select-Window`, `Select-Control`, `Send-Keys`, `Send-Click`, `Get-WindowPosition`, `Set-WindowPosition`, `Set-WindowActive`, `Remove-Window` … etc.



Its goal is to enable Windows GUI Automation scripting from inside PowerShell without resorting to specialized scripting tools. 



Just to be clear, don't expect any ["click to record" functionality](https://www.macosxautomation.com/automator/features/virtual-user.html) … but, *do* expect to be able to automatically tile windows, send mouse clicks and keystrokes, and in general, automate those tasks that you would normally not be able to do from a console.



## How to install



Download from [releases](../../releases), and extract into a PowerShell module directory (e.g., you can try, `$env:PSModulePath -split ';' | Select-Object -First 1`). Use `Get-Module -ListAvailable -Name WASP | Import-Module` to make its cmdlets available to the shell. Detailed instructions here: [How to install WASP as module in PowerShell](How_to_install_WASP_as_module_in_PowerShell.md)



 1. [Choose your module install path](How_to_install_WASP_as_module_in_PowerShell.md#step-1-choose-your-module-install-path)

 2. [Ensure DLL is in the WASP directory](How_to_install_WASP_as_module_in_PowerShell.md#step-2-ensure-dll-is-in-the-wasp-directory)

 3. [Copy WASP DLL to module path and unblock it](How_to_install_WASP_as_module_in_PowerShell.md#step-3-copy-wasp-dll-to-module-path-and-unblock-it)

 4. [Import new module](How_to_install_WASP_as_module_in_PowerShell.md#step-4-import-new-module)



## Some Usage Examples

#### Author's standard demo:



##### Open a couple windows

    notepad.exe

    explorer.exe

##### list the windows

    Select-Window | ft –auto

##### Activate Notepad

    Select-Window notepad* | Set-WindowActive

##### Close Explorer

    Select-Window explorer | Select -First 1 | Remove-WIndow

##### Run a few more copies of notepad

    notepad; notepad; notepad; notepad;

##### Move them around so we can see them all … (Note the use of `foreach` with the incrementation)

    $i = 1;$t = 100; Select-Window notepad | ForEach { Set-WindowPosition -X 20 -Y (($i++)*$t) -Window $_ }

##### Put some text into them …

    Select-Window notepad | Send-Keys "this is a test"

##### Close the first notepad window by pressing ALT+F4, and pressing Alt+N

###### In this case, you don't have to worry about shifting focus to the popup, because it's modal

###### THE PROBLEM with sending keys like that is:
		if there is no confirmation dialog because the file is unchanged, the Alt+N still gets sent

    Select-Window notepad | Select -First 1 | Send-Keys "%{F4}%n"

##### Close the next notepad window … 

##### By asking nicely (Remove-Window) and then hitting "n" for "Don't Save"

##### If there are no popups, Select-ChldWindow returns nothing, and that's the end of it

    Select-Window notepad | Select -First 1 | Remove-Window -Passthru | `

      Select-ChildWindow | Send-Keys "n"

##### Close the next notepad window the hard way 

##### Just to show off that our "Window" objects have a ProcessID and can be piped to kill

    Select-Window notepad | Select -First 1 | kill

##### A different way to confirm Don't Save (use CLICK instead of keyboard)

##### Notice how I dive in through several layers of Select-Control to find the button?

##### This can only work experimentally: 

##### use SPY++, or run the line repeatedly, adding "|Select-Control" until you see the one you want

    Select-Window notepad | Select -First 1 | Remove-Window -Passthru | `

      Select-childwindow | select-control| select-control| select-control -title "Do&n't Save" | Send-Click

##### But now we have the new -Recurse parameter, so it's easy.  Just find the window you want and …

    Select-Window notepad | Select -First 1 | Remove-Window -Passthru | `

      Select-childwindow | select-control -title "Do&n't Save"  -recurse | Send-Click



#### Author's favourite use: Re-dock all Visual Studio Tool windows



###### NOTE: 0, 0 is the resize corner, so you need to specify X,Y coordinates for the click:

    Select-Window devenv | Select-ChildWindow | Send-Click 10 10 -Double 



### Automation cmdlets

* `Select-Window` - Pick windows by process name or window caption (with wildcard support)

* `Select-ChildWindow` - Pick all owned **windows** of another window (e.g., dialogs, tool windows)

* `Select-Control` - Pick controls (children) of a specific window, by class and/or name and/or index (with wildcard support) -- NOTE: the "Window" can be specified as "-Window 0" to get all parentless windows, which includes windows, dialogs, tooltips, etc.… With **-Window 0** this returns a true superset of the Select-Window output.

* `Send-Click` - send mouse clicks (any button, with any modifier keys)

* `Send-Keys` - [Windows.Forms.SendKeys](http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.sendkeys) lets you send keys … try this: `Select-Window notepad | Send-Keys "%(ea)Testing{Enter}{F5}"` (and for extra fun, try it with multiple notepad windows open).

* `Set-WindowActive` - Simply activates the window

* `Set-WindowPosition` - Set any one of (or all of) top, left, width, height on a window … or maximize/minimize/restore

* `Get-WindowPosition` - Get the position (kind-of redundant, actually, since the Window object has it's position as a property)

* `Remove-Window` - Closes the specified window



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