How to launch 64-bit powershell from 32-bit cmd.exe?

Question

I know it's a weird question but I am locked into a third party vendor which launches a 32-bit cmd.exe on a target 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 clustered server. From here I want to launch a 64-bit PowerShell window and run a script.

Here's my test:

powershell.exe "Get-Module -ListAvailable| Where-Object {$_.name -eq 'FailoverClusters'}"

If I run this from a 32-bit cmd.exe I get nothing returned. If I run from a 64-bit cmd.exe I get:

ModuleType Name                      ExportedCommands ---------- ----                      ---------------- Manifest   FailoverClusters          {} 

Any ideas on what I can do to invoke a 64-bit powershell script from a 32-bit cmd shell?

Answer 1

syswow64 lets you run 32 bit system executables from 64 bit code. sysnative lets you run 64 bit system executables from 32 bit code.

So, you need to run:

%SystemRoot%\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe 

Answer 2

This script will check as see what version of powershell you are running and will relaunch itself to 64-bit if you are running in 32-bit. When the relaunch occurs it will also pass in any parameters used in the original call.

############################################################################# #If Powershell is running the 32-bit version on a 64-bit machine, we  #need to force powershell to run in 64-bit mode . ############################################################################# if ($env:PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 -eq "AMD64") {     write-warning "Y'arg Matey, we're off to 64-bit land....."     if ($myInvocation.Line) {         &"$env:WINDIR\sysnative\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile $myInvocation.Line     }else{         &"$env:WINDIR\sysnative\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NonInteractive -NoProfile -file "$($myInvocation.InvocationName)" $args     } exit $lastexitcode }   write-host "Main script body"  ############################################################################# #End #############################################################################