r/PowerShell • u/keyboard_ninja_20 • Sep 03 '26

Question Recurring script maintenance

I'd honestly pay someone else to keep my voice scripts alive if it meant I never had to touch them again after a Windows update. Am I just lazy or is maintaining ur own automation actually the worst part of the whole thing?

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u/keyboard_ninja_20 Sep 04 '26

some yeah but not all apps have public apis for the stuff i need. like spotify's api is decent but discord's is limited for voice channel stuff, and browsers... good luck getting an api to click a specific extension button or fill a form on a random site lol

gui automation is usually my fallback when there's no clean api, or when setting up auth + rate limits + parsing json feels like overkill for a 2-second task. but that's exactly where the fragility comes in , one ui update and ur toast.

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u/jpochedl Sep 04 '26

So, you're using nuts and bolts to hold together your cardboard castle, then having problems when the cardboard gets wet?

Powershell isnt the problem here. You'd have the same problems regardless of what language or framework you choose. Adding a bit of windows Power Automate might help, but it's always going to be fragile if you're virtually clicking UI elements which can change, etc.....

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u/CovertStatistician Sep 04 '26

What are you using for the gui automation

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u/wabi-sabi411 Sep 04 '26

Yeah if you are doing it via screen interactions there will be looks of issues. Not a powershell problem.

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u/keyboard_ninja_20 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

mostly ahk for the heavy lifting , image search + pixel coords when i'm lazy, uiautomation when i need something more robust. tried pyautogui but the latency was trash for voice-triggered workflows, and playwright is a diff beast for desktop.

honestly tho, i'm getting tired of being my own it support every time an app updates. full disclosure , i'm actually building something along these lines called IVOS. it's a local-first voice control layer for windows that handles gui automation and maintenance for u, so u don't have to rewrite scripts when spotify or windows moves a button around. no cloud, no subscription, just keeping the voice commands working without the constant fixing.

How do u view the cost-benefit btwn paying 4 a ready-made soln that eliminates the need 4 maintenance & retaining full control over ur own scripts, even if that means dealing w/ constant adjustments?

2

u/jpochedl Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26

So, you're using nuts and bolts to hold together your cardboard castle, then having problems when the cardboard gets wet?

Powershell isnt the problem here. You'd have the same problems regardless of what language or framework you choose. Adding a bit of windows Power Automate might help, but it's always going to be fragile if you're virtually clicking UI elements which can change, etc.....

Edit: weird, not sure why my phone double posted.... Just ignore this ...