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dkingsb4's avatar
dkingsb4
Copper Contributor
Apr 23, 2025
Solved

Deploying PS Script as Application Doesn't Work

I've been trying desperately to get a powershell script to run on a target machine using MECM. First to note, I inherited a partially built MECM environment from my predecessor that wasn't documented...
Configuration Manager
scripts
System Account
  • Garth-MVP's avatar
    Garth-MVP
    Apr 24, 2025

    Your problem is that you are copying a file from a network share. This is because the script will run as local system account. As such you need to test your script as local system. This blog will show you how to do that. How to Access the Local System Account - Recast Software

    You can solve this but including the license file with the script/setup. That is the simplest solution.

AhmedLS's avatar
AhmedLS
Copper Contributor
Apr 24, 2025

running powershell script in the user context is kind of tricky because of the execution-policy and user rights.

is it possible to post the script here?

i would advice using app-deployment toolkit as it will post all log files in the c:\windows\logs folder or enable 

 

or 

 

you can add this line att the top of you powershell script and run it to see what goes wrong

Start-Transcript -Path c:\temp\log.txt -Append

  • dkingsb4's avatar
    dkingsb4
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 25, 2025

    Yeah it's a pretty basic PS script. 

    # Define variables
    $SourcePath1 = "<path/file>"
    $DestinationPath1 = "<path/file>"
    $SourcePath2 = "<path>"
    $DestinationPath2 = "<path"
     
    # Copy files from source to destination
    try {
        Copy-Item -Path $SourcePath1 -Destination $DestinationPath1 -Recurse -Force
    Write-Host "Files copied successfully from '$SourcePath1' to '$DestinationPath1'."
    Copy-Item -Path $SourcePath2 -Destination $DestinationPath2 -Recurse -Force
        Write-Host "Files copied successfully from '$SourcePath2' to '$DestinationPath2'."
    }
    catch {
        Write-Error "Error copying files: $($_.Exception.Message)"
        exit 1
    • Garth-MVP's avatar
      Garth-MVP
      Iron Contributor
      Apr 27, 2025

      did you test the script as the local system account? Are any of the paths Unc? 

      • dkingsb4's avatar
        dkingsb4
        Copper Contributor
        Apr 28, 2025

        So when I was testing this initially I tested using the signed in user account at least just to make sure the syntax was correct, which it was. Knowing that MECM was using the SYSTEM account, I made the assumption that the issue I was having with doing this through MECM was just that - so I never tested directly with the SYSTEM account. However, using your instructions, I did find that this did indeed fail. Once I gave "All Domain Computers" read/execute on the source location share, the SYSTEM account was successful in copying over the files. I was then able to make this work directly within MECM using the script. 

         

        I also made an application, one to install the software I'm looking to install, and a second one to invoke the script to copy the files. This works, but I did find that it seems to fail initially because the script tries to run at the same time as the software install (therefore the target directories don't exist). This is despite me specifying that the software installation is to be a prerequisite. A second run at the script install after the software is in place is successful.

         

        I'm sure there's a better way of accomplishing this as well. I'll have to keep tinkering with it to get it exactly the way I want it, but this works for now. 

    • AhmedLS's avatar
      AhmedLS
      Copper Contributor
      Apr 26, 2025

      if you are running the script in user context the $DestinationPath is very important. unless the user has rights to the folder it wont work. anywhere outside the user profile actually wont work unless the user is admin.

      you wrote that you ran the script manually and it worked. did you run it as a user or admin 

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