Initiating Deployed Applications and Task Sequences Using PowerShell

Howdy. I’ve been spending the past month or so automating a lot of repeatable tasks, none of which have been groundbreaking. Yet, I don’t want to leave you hanging, so I thought I’d share a quick PowerShell script I created to initiate a deployed Task Sequence on a client machine. It is a nice tool to keep in your utility belt and you can use it to automate any deployed application that may appear as available in Software Center.

The script syntax is:

Execute-TaskSequence.ps1 -TSName <TSNAME>

Obviously, the TSName can be edited to an Application name, but I needed this specifically for a project that needed to automate the initiation of a Task Sequence. Stop yelling at me.

This will initiate a Machine Policy Evaluation and Retrieval a maximum of five times (15 second intervals) before it aborts, just in case you ran the script but forgot to deploy the TS or add the machine to a collection. It will stop requesting policy once the TS is found.

Param (
[parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
$TSName,
$trigger = "{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000021}",
$machine = $env:COMPUTERNAME
)
$VerbosePreference = "continue"
## Connect to Software Center
Try {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Connecting to the SCCM client Software Center..."
$SoftwareCenter = New-Object -ComObject "UIResource.UIResourceMgr"
}
Catch {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Failed to connect to Software Center."
exit 1
}
## Runs a maximum of 5 times until TS is present; abort if not found
for ($i = 1; $i -le 5; $i++) {

##Initiates trigger of Machine Policy Retrieval and Evaluation
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Trying to invoke Machine Policy Retrieval..."
Invoke-WmiMethod -ComputerName $machine -Namespace root\ccm -Class sms_client -Name TriggerSchedule $trigger | Out-Null
Start-Sleep -Seconds 15

## Search for Task Sequence
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Searching for $TSName..."
$TS = $SoftwareCenter.GetAvailableApplications() | ?{$_.PackageName -eq "$TSName"}
## If Task Sequence is found
If ($TS) {
$i = 5
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Found $TSName."

## Attempt to execute the Task Sequence
Try {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Executing $TSName..."
$SoftwareCenter.ExecuteProgram($($TS.ID),$($TS.PackageID),$true)
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - $TSName executed."
}
Catch {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Failed to run $TSName"
exit 1
}
}
else {
if ($i -ne 5) {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Could not find $TSName. Trying $(5 - $i) more time(s)."
}
else {
Write-Verbose "$((Get-Date).ToShortTimeString()) - Could not find $TSName after maximum attempts. Exiting script."
exit 1
}
}
}