Create Powershell Alias w/ a Function incl. Parameters

Question

UPDATED-STATEMENT: 20190815@000000@THU Working on creating a powershell initial profile for current user only and without running as admin that is authorized to run commands from from the ps-profilefile such as custom aliases that isn't cmlet specific.
UPDATED-STATEMENT: 20190825@112626@SUN Created working powershell initial profile-file that is only for current user and is authorized to run scripts via setting execution policy as "RemoteSigned" but custom aliases don't work. Only alias for notepad works.
UPDATED-STATEMENT: 20190901@171442@SUN Still no way to run an executable with cmd like params or arguments without error.
UPDATED-STATEMENT: 20190809@171100@SUN Removed the "%" ps alias for "ForEach-Object" and instead used just one parameter but ps doesn't recognize parameters. How do I get powershell to recognize parameters?
UPDATED-STATEMENT: 20190915@105906@SUN Bounty ended no solution so far.

SPECIFICATION

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

Major  Minor  Build  Revision
-----  -----  -----  --------
5      1      18362  145

I want to be able to use Powershell instead of Command Prompt. In order for me to do so I need to set up Aliases that are NOT cmdlets OR something as basic like notepad.exe. The aliases I want to define are from executables with parameters that I find to be too much to type for a repetitive task. Below is an alias I'm trying to achieve, but can't get it to work. This custom alias is added within PS as session only for demonstration purposes (once it works then i'll add it to the currentuser ps-profilefile) So, my question is: how do I define an alias that isn't a cmdlet, but an executable with at least one parameter or more?

Are Aliases defined in PowerShell a shorter way to query Cmdlets? Because that's the most I get from all the documentation that I've come across.

RUNNING ALIAS BY DEFINING FUNCTION

CODELINE1_setfunction:

[OLD] PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> function FB {pathto/foobar.exe -parameter1 %%(option1)s.%%(option1a)s -parameter2 --option2}

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> function FB {pathto/foobar.exe -parameter2 --option2}

CODELINE2_definealiaswfunction:

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> set-alias FOOBAR -value FB

CODELINE3_runalias:

PS C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0> FOOBAR

[OLD] FOOBAR : The term 'FOOBAR' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again. At line:1 char:1 + FOOBAR + ~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (FOOBAR:String) [], CommandNotF oundException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

New-Item : A parameter cannot be found that matches parameter name ''. At C:\Users\user\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1:1 char:47 + new-item alias:aliastofoobar -value foobar.exe -parameter2 --option1 + ~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidArgument: (:) [New-Item], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NamedParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand

RUNNING ALIAS BY SCRIPT W/ NOTEPAD FOR SIMPLICITY

• Do you have a script that can run commands?
  • Yes, pls. see script below for content & the it's error upon ps launch

PS C:\Users\user> $PROFILE
C:\Users\user\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1
PS C:\Users\user> test-path $PROFILE
True
PS C:\Users\user> Get-ExecutionPolicy
RemoteSigned

new-item alias:npa -value notepad.exe /A new_ansifile.txt

New-Item : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '/A'.
At C:\Users\user\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1:2 char:1
+ new-item alias:np -value notepad.exe /A new
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:) [New-Item], ParameterBindingException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PositionalParameterNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand

SOLUTION

• None-so-far

Answer 1

If I'm understanding what you're looking to do, then yes, totally doable.

Wrap your foobar.exe call in quotes to make it all a single string.

"foobar.exe -param1 -param2"

In your function, put cmd /c before the string. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/515309/what-does-cmd-c-mean

Then, use Set-Alias to set it how you like, with -Value as the function name.

All together...

function doSomething() {
    cmd /c "foobar.exe -param1 -param2"
}

Set-Alias -Name FOOBAR -Value doSomething

Now, when FOOBAR is ran in PS, it executes foobar.exe -param1 -param2 as if you typed it manually.

If I misunderstood the question, please let me know. Hopefully this helps.

Answer 2

With the very same PSVersion I get different results:

PoSh> function FB {pathto/foobar.exe -parameter1 %%(option1)s.%%(option1a)s -parameter2 --option2}
PoSh> (Get-Command FB).Definition
pathto/foobar.exe -parameter1 %%(option1)s.%%(option1a)s -parameter2 --option2
PoSh> Set-Alias FOOBAR -Value FB
PoSh> Get-Alias FOOBAR

CommandType     Name                                               Version    Source
-----------     ----                                               -------    ------
Alias           FOOBAR -> FB

So it's neither the definition of the function (whose script block is evaluated on execution) nor the definition of the Alias what provokes the error you describe.

It's more likely the error is about quoting, wrong parentheses or arguments at the time the script block is executed.