Question

Here’s the whole code:

$kansio = ($args[0]).replace("'","")
$tiedostot = 0

Get-ChildItem $kansio | foreach {if ($_.Extension -eq ".jpg"){$_.FullName}} |
foreach {

    $id = (Start-process mspaint $_ -ea 0 -PassThru).Id
    $vikaTallennus = (Get-ChildItem $_).LastWriteTime

    [void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("'Microsoft.VisualBasic")
    [void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("'System.Windows.Forms")

    do
    {
        try
        {
            if ((Get-Process -Id $id -ea 'stop').WaitForInputIdle())
            {
                [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::AppActivate($id)
                [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait("^s")
                [System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait("{esc}")
                for ($i=1; $i -le 10; $i++)
                {
                    if ((Get-ChildItem $_).LastWriteTime -gt $vikaTallennus)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            Stop-Process -Id $id -force -ea 'stop'
                            Write-Host "Done: $_" -foregroundcolor Green
                            break
                        }
                        catch
                        {
                            Write-Host "Failed to close the process" -foregroundcolor DarkRed
                            Start-Sleep -milliseconds 100
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch
        {
            Write-Host "Failed to catch the process" -foregroundcolor DarkRed
            Start-Sleep -milliseconds 100
        }
    } until ((Get-Process -Id $id -ea 0) -eq $null -or $id -eq $null)
    $tiedostot++
}
Write-Host "Files saved: $tiedostot" -foregroundcolor Green

If the filename of a JPG picture contains “[” or “]” PowerShell fails to close MSPaint. Why?
What workarounds are there? Can I use some literalname thing in here?

Answer 1

Yes, if you want to use Get-ChildItem to return files/folders with brackets (and some other weird characters), you should use the -LiteralPath parameter. Here’s a decent writeup.

So if you expect such characters in the filenames, and you don’t need wildcard support, the pertinent line should be:

if ((Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $_).LastWriteTime -gt $vikaTallennus)