Q: I'm trying to call a console application from PowerShell in the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), but applications that require user interaction don't work; why?
A: Interactive console applications aren't supported from the PowerShell ISE, which is by design. If you need to call a console application that requires user interaction, launch the console application via the "start-process <command>" action, which will launch in a separate window. If you launch cmd.exe from the PowerShell ISE, it will fail. But if you use Start-Process cmd.exe, it will work.