Question

I’m using the following PowerShell 2.0 code to grab input from a vb inputbox:

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName('Microsoft.VisualBasic')
$name = [Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction]::InputBox("What is your name?", "Name", "bob")

Sometimes when I run it the input box appears behind the active window. Is there a way to make the input box top most? Or an easy way to get its handle and just use setforegroundwindow?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

I’m not sure how to do this easily considering that the InputBox call is modal so you can’t easily try to find the window handle and do a set-foreground on that window (unless you attempt to use a background job). Rather than use this VisualBasic text input box, how about a “roll your own” implementation using WPF/XAML. It is pretty easy but it does require WPF which is installed by PowerShell 2.0 if necessary.

$Xaml = @'
<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        x:Name="Window"
        Title="Name" Height="137" Width="444" MinHeight="137" MinWidth="100"
        FocusManager.FocusedElement="{Binding ElementName=TextBox}"
        ResizeMode="CanResizeWithGrip" >
    <DockPanel Margin="8">
        <StackPanel DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" 
                    Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Right">
            <Button x:Name="OKButton" Width="60" IsDefault="True" 
                    Margin="12,12,0,0" TabIndex="1" >_OK</Button>
            <Button Width="60" IsCancel="True" Margin="12,12,0,0" 
                    TabIndex="2" >_Close</Button>
        </StackPanel>
        <StackPanel >
            <Label x:Name="Label" Margin="-5,0,0,0" TabIndex="3">Label:</Label>
            <TextBox x:Name="TextBox" TabIndex="0" />
        </StackPanel>
    </DockPanel>
</Window>
'@

if ([System.Threading.Thread]::CurrentThread.ApartmentState -ne 'STA')
{
    throw "Script can only be run if PowerShell is started with -STA switch."
}

Add-Type -Assembly PresentationCore,PresentationFrameWork

$xmlReader = [System.Xml.XmlReader]::Create([System.IO.StringReader] $Xaml)
$form = [System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader]::Load($xmlReader)
$xmlReader.Close()

$window = $form.FindName("Window")
$window.Title = "My App Name"

$label = $form.FindName("Label")
$label.Content = "What is your name?"

$textbox = $form.FindName("TextBox")

$okButton = $form.FindName("OKButton")
$okButton.add_Click({$window.DialogResult = $true})

if ($form.ShowDialog())
{
    $textbox.Text
}

This could be rather easily wrapped up into a Read-GuiText function.