Simple InputBox function

Question

I\'m aware of a simple pop-up function for PowerShell, e.g.:

function popUp($text,$title) {
    $a = new-object -co         


        

Answer 1

The simplest way to get an input box is with the Read-Host cmdlet and -AsSecureString parameter.

$us = Read-Host 'Enter Your User Name:' -AsSecureString
$pw = Read-Host 'Enter Your Password:' -AsSecureString

This is especially useful if you are gathering login info like my example above. If you prefer to keep the variables obfuscated as SecureString objects you can convert the variables on the fly like this:

[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($us))
[Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pw))

If the info does not need to be secure at all you can convert it to plain text:

$user = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($us))

Read-Host and -AsSecureString appear to have been included in all PowerShell versions (1-6) but I do not have PowerShell 1 or 2 to ensure the commands work identically. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.utility/read-host?view=powershell-3.0