How to use Wait-Process in Powershell?

Wait-Process cmdlet in PowerShell is used to wait for the process to stop before the execution moves on to the next step.

Example

We have a snipping tool application running and we need to wait for the process to stop first and then move on to the next step.

PS C:\> Get-Process SnippingTool | Select Name,Id,CPU
Name          Id    CPU
----          --    ---
SnippingTool  7440   2.0625

To wait for the process to stop first we will use the Wait-Process command. You can provide ProcessName or ID.

Write-Output "Waiting for the Process to Stop"
Wait-Process -Name 'SnippingTool'
Write-Output 'Snipping tool Process is stopped'

Output

PS C:\> C:\Temp\TestPS1.ps1
Waiting for the Process to Stop

Once the process is stopped,

PS C:\> C:\Temp\TestPS1.ps1
Waiting for the Process to Stop
Snipping tool Process is stopped

If the desired process can’t stop, the execution waits forever. You can also provide the timeout parameter in seconds so if the process can’t stop in the mentioned time, it will throw an error.

Example

Write-Output "Waiting for the Process to Stop"
Wait-Process -Name 'SnippingTool' -Timeout 5
Write-Output 'Snipping tool Process is stopped'

Output

PS C:\> C:\Temp\TestPS1.ps1
Waiting for the Process to Stop
CloseError: (System.Diagnostics.…cess (SnippingTool):Process) [Wait-Process],
TimeoutException
Snipping tool Process is stopped

In such instance we can use the change the ErrorAction setting to Stop.

Example

Write-Output "Waiting for the Process to Stop"
Wait-Process -Name 'SnippingTool' -Timeout 5 -ErrorAction Stop
Write-Output 'Snipping tool Process is stopped'

Output

PS C:\> C:\Temp\TestPS1.ps1
Waiting for the Process to Stop
CloseError: (System.Diagnostics.…cess (SnippingTool):Process) [Wait-Process],
TimeoutException

Chirag Nagrekar

Updated on 04-Jan-2021 09:55:46

• Related Questions & Answers
• How to use –Wait parameter in Restart-Computer cmdlet in PowerShell?
• What is the use of Get-Process command in PowerShell?
• PowerShell: Wait for the First command to finish
• How to confirm before stopping the process in PowerShell?
• What is the use of Passthru parameter in Stop-Process in PowerShell?
• How to get process output in GridView format in PowerShell ?
• How to use stopwatch in PowerShell?
• How to get the Process performance counter using PowerShell?
• How to stop all instances of the process in PowerShell?
• How to use PowerShell as a Calculator? Or How to use PowerShell for arithmetic operations?
• How to use PowerShell Help commands?
• How to get all the Get-Process properties using PowerShell?
• How to get the specific process(es) information using PowerShell?
• How to use Measure-Object in PowerShell?
• How to use function Alias in PowerShell?