How can I execute the mt.exe in a PowerShell command prompt

Question

I need to run the mt.exe (part of visual studio express) to embed an application manifest into another executable. Usually the mt.exe is called from a Visual Studio command promtp. The procedure is described here.

I need to trigger this command from a PowerShell command prompt, because I want to do this during a vagrant provisioning. How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

You can import the environment variables from Visual Studio's batch script using the Invoke-CmdScript function from this article:

Take Charge of Environment Variables in PowerShell

The function's definition is as follows:

# Invokes a Cmd.exe shell script and updates the environment.
function Invoke-CmdScript {
  param(
    [String] $scriptName
  )
  $cmdLine = """$scriptName"" $args & set"
  & $Env:SystemRoot\system32\cmd.exe /c $cmdLine |
  Select-String '^([^=]*)=(.*)$' | ForEach-Object {
    $varName = $_.Matches[0].Groups[1].Value
    $varValue = $_.Matches[0].Groups[2].Value
    Set-Item Env:$varName $varValue
  }
}

Put this function in your PowerShell profile and you can use it to run the Visual Studio script that sets the needed environment variables.

The article also contains Get-Environment and Restore-Environment functions if you want to implement scope for the environment variables the Visual Studio script sets.