Select Menu for packages to install

i created this script which installs chocolatey and previous in the script "selected" packages (deselection happens with the #). now i want to customize the script in a way that allows to chose the packages to install while running the script. is it possible to create kind of a menu, which allows to select/deselect the packages to be beinstalled while running the script ? maybe someone can give me a hint.

    # Install Chocolatey and All Apps listed in the $Packages variable


       param([switch]$Elevated)
    function Test-Admin {
        $currentUser = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal $([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())
        $currentUser.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltinRole]::Administrator)
    }

    if ((Test-Admin) -eq $false)  {
        if ($elevated) {
            # tried to elevate, did not work, aborting
        } else {
            Start-Process powershell.exe -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList ('-noprofile -noexit -file "{0}" -elevated' -f ($myinvocation.MyCommand.Definition))
        }
        exit
    }

    Write-Host "Running with full priviliges" -ForegroundColor Red -BackgroundColor Yellow
    

    pause


Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))



choco install abaclient

   

choco install pdfxchangeeditor -params "'/NoUpdater /NoUpdater'"


# choco install notepadplusplus.install


choco install winrar


choco install firefox

Solution

There are of course many ways to create some kind of menu. Here's two ideas for you:

You could use Out-GridView to select the packages to install like this

# create an array with all possible installs
$allPackages = 'winrar', 'notepadplusplus', 'abaclient','firefox' | Sort-Object

$selected = $allPackages | Out-GridView -Title 'Select Packages to install' -PassThru
if (@($selected).Count) {
    $selected | ForEach-Object { choco install $_ }
}
else {
    Write-Host 'Nothing selected..'
}

Or you could create a selection form of your own like the one below that makes use of a CheckedListBox control:

# create an array with all possible installs
$allPackages = 'winrar', 'notepadplusplus', 'abaclient','firefox' | Sort-Object
$selected    = $null

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Drawing
    
$form                 = [System.Windows.Forms.Form]::new()
$form.Text            = 'Select Packages to install'
$form.Size            = [System.Drawing.Size]::new(500,300)
$form.StartPosition   = 'CenterScreen'
$form.FormBorderStyle = 'FixedDialog'
$form.TopMost         = $true

# create a CheckedListBox control
$checkedListBox              = [System.Windows.Forms.CheckedListBox]::new()
$checkedListBox.Location     = [System.Drawing.Size]::new(20,20)
$checkedListBox.Size         = [System.Drawing.Size]::new(440,200) 
$checkedListBox.CheckOnClick = $true 
$checkedListBox.ClearSelected()
# add the items to install to the list
foreach ($package in $allPackages) {
    [void]$checkedListBox.Items.Add($package, $false)
}

$form.Controls.Add($checkedListBox)

# Add a button to the form
$okButton          = [System.Windows.Forms.Button]::new()
$okButton.Text     = 'OK'
$okButton.Location = [System.Drawing.Point]::new(20,230)
$okButton.Add_Click({
    # capture the chosen items in a variable and close the form
    $script:Selected = $checkedListBox.CheckedItems | ForEach-Object {$_.ToString()}
    $form.DialogResult = [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK
    $form.Close()
})

$form.Controls.Add($okButton)
$form.AcceptButton = $okButton

# display the form
[void]$form.ShowDialog()
# and destroy it when done so it doesn't linger in memory
$form.Dispose()

if (@($selected).Count) {
    $selected | ForEach-Object { choco install $_ }
}
else {
    Write-Host 'Nothing selected..'
}

Edit

It seems installing with choco sometimes needs a different install string than just the name of the package. To handle that, I would create a Hashtable with the package name as key and the install string as value:

$installStrings = @{
    notepadplusplus  = "notepadplusplus.install"
    pdfxchangeeditor = "-params '`"/NoUpdater`"'"  # note the backticks to escape the embedded double-quotes
}

Then, instead of line $selected | ForEach-Object { choco install $_ }, you do:

$selected | ForEach-Object { 
    if ($installStrings.ContainsKey($_)) {
        choco install $($installStrings[$_])
    }
    else { choco install $_ }
}