Question

I have developed a Powershell script that needs to be run automatically daily. This was developed on a PC of mine that has Powershell. I could setup a schedule on my PC to execute it, but that’s not a good idea (if the PC is left turned off etc).

There are a number of Windows Servers available I could use. But I don’t have access to install anything on them and if none of them have Powershell installed, how do I accomplish this? Can Windows somehow execute Powershell (.ps1) scripts without Powershell installed?

I would also prefer the script to be uneditable after the automation is in place.

Answer 1

Probably your best bet would be to use portable powershell on the server directly (http://site.shelltools.net/Applications/Portable_PowerShell)
It basically gives you a stand-alone powershell exe without having to actually install PowerShell.

As for making it uneditable, you are mostly restricted to using NTFS permissions. Another option to do what you want might be here: http://powershell.com/cs/forums/p/5493/8863.aspx although I’ve never used either of these tools myself.

Another alternative is to use a batch file and the psexec utility to call the powershell script on the remote host. You could set a scheduled task on the Windows Server like this:

@echo off
setlocal

:: Change HOST to your workstation's IP/DNS hostname
HOST=127.0.0.1
:: Make this your workstation's MAC
MAC=00-00-00-11-22-33
:: Make this the number of seconds it takes your host to boot
BOOTTIME=60

ping %HOST%
if ERRORLEVEL 0 (
    REM Ping successful, host is up
    GOTO RUNCMD 
) else (
    :: Ping not successful, wake up host using mc-wol from matcode.com.  Server must be in same subnet
    mc-wol.exe %MAC%
    choice /T %BOOTTIME% /D y >NUL
    GOTO RUNCMD
)

:RUNCMD
    psexec \\%HOST% {cmd options to run remote powershell}

endlocal