Running windows batch file commands asynchronously

Question

Say, if I have

• foo.exe
• bar.exe
• baz.exe

How do I run all of them from a batch file asynchronously, i.e. without waiting for the previous program to stop?

Answer 1

Using START command to run each program should get you what you need.

Every START invocation runs the command given in its parameter and returns immediately, unless executed with a /WAIT switch.

That applies to command-line apps. Apps without command line return immediately anyway, so to be sure, if you want to run all asynchronously, use START.

Answer 2

Create a batch file with the following lines:

start foo.exe
start bar.exe
start baz.exe

The start command runs your command in a new window, so all 3 commands would run asynchronously.

Answer 3

You can use the start command to spawn background processes without launching new windows:

start /b foo.exe

The new process will not be interruptable with CTRL-C; you can kill it only with CTRL-BREAK (or by closing the window, or via Task Manager.)

Answer 4

wow, that helped alot in starting "Teamspeak" and "TeamspeakNoise" parallel.