PowerShell Commands

Wait-Process

Wait-Process [-Id*] <Int32[]> [[-Timeout] <Int32>] [<CommonParameters>]
Wait-Process [[-Timeout] <Int32>] -InputObject* <Process[]> [<CommonParameters>]
Wait-Process [-Name*] <String[]> [[-Timeout] <Int32>] [<CommonParameters>]

The Wait-Process cmdlet waits for one or more running processes to be stopped before accepting input. In the Windows PowerShell console, this cmdlet suppresses the command prompt until the processes are stopped. You can specify a process by process name or process ID (PID), or pipe a process object to Wait-Process . Wait-Process works only on processes running on the local computer.

Parameters

-Id <Int32[]>

  • This value is required
  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByPropertyName

Specifies the process IDs of the processes. To specify multiple IDs, use commas to separate the IDs. To find the PID of a process, type `Get-Process`.

-InputObject <Process[]>

  • This value is required
  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByValue

Specifies the processes by submitting process objects. Enter a variable that contains the process objects, or type a command or expression that gets the process objects, such as the Get-Process cmdlet.

-Name <String[]>

  • This value is required
  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input ByPropertyName

Specifies the process names of the processes. To specify multiple names, use commas to separate the names. Wildcard characters are not supported.

-Timeout <Int32>

  • Default value is None
  • Accepts pipeline input False

Specifies the maximum time, in seconds, that this cmdlet waits for the specified processes to stop. When this interval expires, the command displays a non-terminating error that lists the processes that are still running, and ends the wait. By default, there is no time-out.

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,OutBuffer, PipelineVariable, and OutVariable.

Inputs
System.Diagnostics.Process
You can pipe a process object to this cmdlet.
Outputs
None
This cmdlet does not generate any output.
Examples
  1. Stop a process and wait:
    PS C:\> $nid = (Get-Process notepad).id
    PS C:\>  Stop-Process -Id $nid
    PS C:\>  Wait-Process -Id $nid
    

    This example stops the Notepad process and then waits for the process to be stopped before it continues with the next command.

    The first command uses the Get-Process cmdlet to get the ID of the Notepad process. It stores the ID in the $nid variable.

    The second command uses the Stop-Process cmdlet to stop the process with the ID stored in $nid.

    The third command uses Wait-Process to wait until the Notepad process is stopped. It uses the Id parameter of Wait-Process to identify the process.

  2. Specifying a process:
    PS C:\> $p = Get-Process notepad
    PS C:\>  Wait-Process -Id $p.id
    PS C:\>  Wait-Process -Name "notepad"
    PS C:\>  Wait-Process -InputObject $p
    

    These commands show three different methods of specifying a process to Wait-Process . The first command gets the Notepad process and stores it in the $p variable.

    The second command uses the Id parameter, the third command uses the Name parameter, and the fourth command uses the InputObject parameter.

    These commands have the same results and can be used interchangeably.

  3. Wait for processes for a specified time:
    PS C:\> Wait-Process -Name outlook, winword -Timeout 30
    

    This command waits 30 seconds for the Outlook and Winword processes to stop. If both processes are not stopped, the cmdlet displays a non-terminating error and the command prompt.

Additional Notes
 This cmdlet uses the WaitForExit * method of the System.Diagnostics.Process class. For more information about 
 this method, see the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK.

 *

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. It is attributed to Microsoft Corporation and can be found here.

PowerShell Commands