It's fair to assume that you typically do not want the newly created, minimized window to steal focus from the calling application when you use Start-Process -WindowStyle Minimized.

That is, the calling application (console window) should remain the active application and continue to receive keyboard output.

Currently, -WindowStyle Minimized invariably focuses the minimized window - while the calling window is by definition not obscured, it loses keyboard focus that way.

Two possible enhancements:

• Change -WindowStyle Minimized to not steal focus.

• Since that is technically a breaking change - someone may rely on the old behavior, though I have trouble picturing why - alternatively introduce a new style, MinimizedNoFocus similar to Visual Basic's [AppWinStyle] enumeration.

  • Conceivably, NormalNoFocus could be implemented too (that is, start a process with normal window size, but without giving it focus).

Update:

A related, but distinct issue is #3028, which concern's the CLI's (the pwsh executable's) -WindowStyle parameter, notably the ability to start PowerShell as a whole hidden.

Environment data

Written as of:

PowerShell Core 6.1.0