Passing admin credentials in Start-Process cmdlet

Question

I am trying to build a script that installs an application with encrypted local admin credentials on the pc when the user logged in is not an admin.

I am running the below cmdlet:

$User = "[email protected]" 
$PasswordFile = "C:\temp\Cred\Password.txt" 
$KeyFile = "C:\temp\Cred\AES.key" 
$key = Get-Content $KeyFile 
$MyCredential = New-Object -TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential -ArgumentList $User, (Get-Content $PasswordFile | ConvertTo-SecureString -Key $key) 

Start-Process -FilePath C:\Temp\7z2301-x64.exe -Credential $MyCredential

However, I am getting below error even though I am passing correct credentials:

Start-Process : This command cannot be run due to the error: The user name or 
password is incorrect.
At line:13 char:1
+ Start-Process -FilePath C:\Temp\7z2301-x64.exe -Credential $MyCredent ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (:) [Start-Process], InvalidOp 
   erationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidOperationException,Microsoft.PowerShell.C 
   ommands.StartProcessCommand

Can someone please help on this?

Thank you in advance!

Getting error invalid username and password when running above code.

Answer 1

If the account you’re using doesn’t have the necessary permissions to access the current directory, you might encounter this error.

If you’re running your script as a service, the service might be running under a different account that doesn’t have the necessary permissions.

Try Get-Credential to confirm the credentials are working properly.

$MyCredential = Get-Credential
Start-Process -FilePath C:\Temp\<some_exe>.exe -Credential $MyCredential