PowerShell Start-Process not setting $lastexitcode

Question

I have a set of test DLL\'s that I\'m running from a powershell script that calls OpenCover.Console.exe via the Start-Process command.

I have the

Answer 1

When executing a GUI application, dropping the Start-Process does not help, as PowerShell does not wait for GUI application to complete, when executing them directly this way. So $LASTEXITCODE is not set.

Piping the (non existing) GUI application output helps, as it makes PowerShell to wait for the application to complete.

notepad.exe | Out-Null
echo $LASTEXITCODE

Note that "GUI application" does not necessarily mean that the application has windows. Whether an application is GUI or console is a flag in .exe file header.

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Start-Process -PassThru -Wait as suggested in the answer by @Burt_Harris works too in this case, it's just a bit mode complicated.