Solved Keep Awake When Specific Application Is Running

gunrunnerjohn · May 24, 2025

Also, this was offered as an optermisation to your script. Does this also work?

Powershell:

$WSHELL = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell

Do {
    # Check if VLC is running
    $PROC = Get-Process -Name 'vlc' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

    If ($PROC) {
        # Simulate Scroll Lock key press
        $WSHELL.SendKeys("{SCROLLLOCK}")
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
        $WSHELL.SendKeys("{SCROLLLOCK}")
    } else {
        [console]::beep(500, 100)
    }

    # Wait for 900 seconds before rechecking
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 900

} While ($true)

Appears to work when I paste it in. I plan on using the 15 minutes delay and removing the beep once I get the thing automated.

gunrunnerjohn · May 24, 2025

antspants said:
When you run the script, do you not get a UAC request to run or doesn't it need to be run as admin?

It seems to run fine pasted in the standard PowerScript terminal.

dacrone · May 24, 2025

1) try this as a .bat (its encoded)

Code:

@echo off
powershell.exe -NoExit -encodedCommand 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

2) this has apparently been a vlc issue for quite some time, although i've never had that issue...

.https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc/-/issues/27861

gunrunnerjohn · May 24, 2025

For whatever reason, it gets a PID, but when I look, it's not running in Task Manager. There's obviously something, perhaps some issue in my Windows that is preventing this. We've tried six different ways from Sunday to get this running with no luck!

antspants · May 24, 2025

Delet the task and create it using the following in CMD as admin.
Then check the task was created.

Of course modify the name you want & relevant paths etc to your ps1 script

Code:

schtasks /create /tn "Prevent Sleep Script" /tr "powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\Path\To\YourScript.ps1" /sc onlogon /ru SYSTEM /rl HIGHEST

dacrone · May 24, 2025

hard telling. i know those work and @pseymour works. just for tests, open powershell as admin and run

Code:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

close that console, right click your .ps1 and run with powershell again

gunrunnerjohn · May 25, 2025

dacrone said:
hard telling. i know those work and @pseymour works. just for tests, open powershell as admin and run

Code:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

close that console, right click your .ps1 and run with powershell again

Tried that, no change. I am trying it from and Admin login and using the terminal (Admin) link in the Start Menu, still no change.

It always reacts the same way. When pasted into a PowerShell terminal window directly, the scripts run in either the normal PowerShell, or the Admin PowerShell. However, any of the methods I've tried to run them without the PowerShell terminal window open have failed.

I've tried running them from a batch file, a shortcut, and with the task manager.

gunrunnerjohn · May 26, 2025

I've come to the conclusion that this has to be some obscure permissions setting or similar that I'm unaware of. The fact that other people seem to be able to run a PowerScript in an identical manner but mine fails to start seems to suggest that. The script never starts if I try to hide the execution window.

gunrunnerjohn · May 26, 2025

I just thought of something, so I put a pause in my batch job to see what was happening, and I also removed the hidden window parameter so I could see what was going on. For some reason, the contents aren't recognized properly running invoking it externally. I don't quite understand why the scripts runs fine when pasted directly into the PowerShell window, but not if handed to it by an external script.

[console]::beep(800, 1000)
Do {
#--- Prevent Sleep When Specific Application Is Running ---
# $PROC_NAME ="vlc"
# $PROC = Get-Process $PROC_NAME
$PROC = Get-Process -Name 'vlc' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
If ($PROC)
{
$WSHELL = New-Object -com “Wscript.Shell”
$WSHELL.sendkeys(“{SCROLLLOCK}”)
Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
$WSHELL.sendkeys(“{SCROLLLOCK}”)
}
else
{
[console]::beep(500, 100)
}
# sleep for 900 seconds
Start-Sleep -Seconds 5
} While (1)

garlin · May 26, 2025

Great catch. You’ve been bitten by the classic “don’t copy & paste script code from a browser window” because single and double quotes can get converted to the stylized (non-ASCII) quote characters. This can happen with different browsers or websites.

Open the script file in Notepad, and retype all the quote characters.

gunrunnerjohn · May 26, 2025

garlin said:
Great catch. You’ve been bitten by the classic “don’t copy & paste script code from a browser window” because single and double quotes can get converted to the stylized (non-ASCII) quote characters. This can happen with different browsers or websites.

Open the script file in Notepad, and retype all the quote characters.

WOW, I've been beating my head on the wall wondering why it didn't work. Those were two lines I didn't modify, pretty much everything else was typed in.
FWIW, I didn't pick up on the fact that the quotes looked odd!

Solved Keep Awake When Specific Application Is Running

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