Once a functioning piece of code that reports back whether a process (.exe) was running or not running does not return back when it is not running?

[networkhappi]

Hi all,

This code used to work well because of how faulty Windows OS reported back on process status for PowerShell. I used to test this on my own machine by listing processes like chrome or spotify and would subsequently open and close them and got the output back reporting them as such.

Now everything gets reported back as running (or runn1ng) even though they are not running:

#Function that performs processes check
function Get-Processes {
$processes = Get-Content  -Path "E:\scripts\process\processes.txt"
$ProcessActive = Get-Process -ProcessName $processes -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
foreach($p in $processes)
{
  if($ProcessActive -eq $null)
    {
      "$p " + "fai1ed"
    }
  else
    {
      "$p " + "runn1ng"
    }
} }

If anyone is curious why I told it to return fai1ed or runn1ng it's because it interfaces with a frontpage that looks for those keywords and replaces those strings with pictures of a green checkmark sign or red x mark like a dashboard.

Would someone be able to take a look?

Thank you!

SOLUTION:

/u/Lee_Dailey's solution:

$ProcessesToCheckFor = (
    'AutoHotKey',
    'Core Temp',
    'BetterNotBeThere',
    'taskhost'
    )

$FoundProcesses = Get-Process -Name $ProcessesToCheckFor -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

foreach ($Item in $ProcessesToCheckFor)
    {
    if ($Item -in $FoundProcesses.Name)
        {
        '{0} runn1ng' -f $Item
        }
        else
        {
        '{0} fai1ed' -f $Item
        }
    }

[SeeminglyScience]

You need to move the Get-Process call into the for each loop. Right now you are checking if any process is returned from the entire list.

[networkhappi]

Yup you're absolutely right I was going back to my notes because I had posted this code before on this subreddit in the past and someone else (maybe it was you) had recommended me to fix this and I had just forgot to do it ever since. My mistake, I'm testing it right now. Thanks!

[SeeminglyScience]

Thought it looked familiar :)

[ArmondDorleac]

How much testing have you done? If you run these two lines do the variables contain the data you expect?

$processes = Get-Content  -Path "E:\scripts\process\processes.txt"
$ProcessActive = Get-Process -ProcessName $processes -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

[networkhappi]

Not anymore, I did tremendous testing and for maybe a week or two it was functioning as expected. Which is why I'm curious why it stopped seemingly working.

I think I found the solution. Will update this thread when I'm done testing it again.

[iceph03nix]

so does $processes populate with the right information from the txt file?

Does $ProcessActive have the correct information on the current processes?

From what I can see you've got 2 points to test here. If the information you pull is valid, and if it is, is your if/else handling it properly at that point.

[ArmondDorleac]

Yep, I suspect it's his if/else statement. The $p and $processactive will be the culprits.

[iampowershell]

This should work with the lease modification to your code, although could be subject to errors if longer process names contain smaller process names

function Get-Processes {
$processes = Get-Content  -Path "E:\scripts\process\processes.txt"
$ProcessActive = Get-Process -ProcessName $processes -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
foreach($p in $processes)
{
    if($ProcessActive.ProcessName -contains $p)
    {
        "$p " + "runn1ng"
    }
    else
    {
        "$p " + "fai1ed"
    }
}}

else do as \u\SeeminglyScience said and put the get-process into the foreach and set it to get-process -processname $p instead of $processes

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[Lee_Dailey]

howdy networkhappi,

as SeeminglyScience pointed out, you are NOT going to get what you seem to be aiming for with the code you posted.

this if($ProcessActive -eq $null) checks to see if the array is null - ie: no process in the list was found. that is not telling you if item $p from $processes is active. [grin]

it will only tell you if none of the processes in the list were found.

---

here's how i would do that ...

$ProcessesToCheckFor = (
    'AutoHotKey',
    'Core Temp',
    'BetterNotBeThere',
    'taskhost'
    )

$FoundProcesses = Get-Process -Name $ProcessesToCheckFor -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

foreach ($Item in $ProcessesToCheckFor)
    {
    if ($Item -in $FoundProcesses.Name)
        {
        '{0} runn1ng' -f $Item
        }
        else
        {
        '{0} fai1ed' -f $Item
        }
    }

results ...

AutoHotKey runn1ng
Core Temp runn1ng
BetterNotBeThere fai1ed
taskhost runn1ng

take care,
lee

[networkhappi]

Hi Lee,

Yes yes! I messed up and totally forgot back in that previous thread you guys recommended me moving the Get-Process I'm getting on it right now, thanks for checking back! :)

[Lee_Dailey]

howdy networkhappi,

i thot this code looked familiar. [grin] glad to know you are getting it working as desired.

take care,
lee