One of the significant drawbacks of Powershell scripts when used by users (not sysadmins or programmers) is its command line interface. The result of the scripts is displayed in the CLI window and it is not always convenient for the end user. However, Powershell is a powerful and modern automation tool for Windows that allows you to transparently use a variety of .NET Framework objects. For example, using the .NET API, you can easily create a simple graphical interface GUI for PowerShell scripts.
In this example, we’ll show you how to create a simple Windows GUI form using PowerShell and place on it various standard dialog elements. For example, our task is to write a simple GUI for script that shows the last password change time for the Active Directory user. In this example we use PowerShell 3.0+.
To use the .NET functionality to create forms, we use the class System.Windows.Forms. To load this class into a PowerShell session, you can use the following code:
Add-Type -assembly System.Windows.Forms
Now create the screen form (window):
$main_form = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Form
Set the title and size of the window:
$main_form.Text ='GUI for my PoSh script' $main_form.Width = 600 $main_form.Height = 400
To make the form automatically stretch, if the elements on the form are out of bounds, we use the AutoSize property.
$main_form.AutoSize = $true
Now you can display the form on the screen.
$main_form.ShowDialog()
As you can see, an empty form was displayed. To add various graphical dialog elements to it, before the last line ($main_form.ShowDialog()) add the code below.
Create a label element on the form:
$Label = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label $Label.Text = "AD users" $Label.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(0,10) $Label.AutoSize = $true $main_form.Controls.Add($Label)
Create a drop-down list and fill it with a list of accounts from the Active Directory domain that were obtained using the Get-ADuser cmdlet (from Active Directory for Windows PowerShell module):
$ComboBox = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox
$ComboBox.Width = 300
$Users = get-aduser -filter * -Properties SamAccountName
Foreach ($User in $Users)
{
$ComboBox.Items.Add($User.SamAccountName);
}
$ComboBox.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(60,10)
$main_form.Controls.Add($ComboBox)
Add two more labels to the form. The second will show the time when the password was changed for the selected user:
$Label2 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label $Label2.Text = "Last Password Set:" $Label2.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(0,40) $Label2.AutoSize = $true $main_form.Controls.Add($Label2) $Label3 = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Label $Label3.Text = "" $Label3.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Point(110,40) $Label3.AutoSize = $true $main_form.Controls.Add($Label3)
Now put the button on the form:
$Button = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.Button $Button.Location = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(400,10) $Button.Size = New-Object System.Drawing.Size(120,23) $Button.Text = "Check" $main_form.Controls.Add($Button)
Let’s add an event to this button, when user click on it. To convert the date from the TimeStamp format to the more convenient form, we use the function [datetime]::FromFileTime:
$Button.Add_Click(
{
$Label3.Text = [datetime]::FromFileTime((Get-ADUser -identity $ComboBox.selectedItem -Properties pwdLastSet).pwdLastSet).ToString('MM dd yy : hh ss')
}
)
Run the PowerShell script. As you can see, it fills the drop-down list with the names of the accounts from AD. If you select the user account and click the Check button, the form displays the time when the user’s last password was changed in Active Directory.
Similarly, you can create the following graphic elements on the form:
- CheckBox
- RadioButton
- TextBox
- ChekedListBox
- GroupBox
- ListBox
- TabControl
- ListView
- TreeView
- DateTimePicker
- TrackBar
- PictureBox
- ProgressBar
- HScrollBar
- VScrollBar
- ContextMenu
- Menu
For more convenient creation of graphical elements for PowerShell forms, you can use the online editor to create a GUI form for PowerShell scripts: https://poshgui.com/Editor. With it you can create a beautiful form with the necessary dialog elements.
And get ready PoSh code for your GUI scripts.
The post How to Create a GUI for PowerShell Scripts? appeared first on TheITBros.
