Is it possible to create a windows form app that can run from the command line with parameters?

Question

I would like a windows form app that will contain a UI, but I want it to run from the command line with some parameters possibly also a /hide or /visible=false option.

How is it possible to read in the command line parameters? And adjust accordingly?

Answer 1

Use Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()

Answer 2

If you change this default Main signature:

[STAThread]
static void Main()

To this:

[STAThread]
static void Main(String[] args)

You can access the commandline variables as you would from a normal console app, or if you want to access them from elsewhere you can use:

System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();

Answer 3

Yes, it should work to create the project as a normal windows app project. Then in program.cs before you launch the window, call Environment.GetCommandLineArgs() to get the command line arguments and parse them to do what you want.

Answer 4

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    if (args.Length == 0)
    {
        // Run the application in a windows form
        Application.Run(new MainForm( ));
    }
    else
    {
        // Run app from CLI
        Console.WriteLine(DoStuff(args));
    }
}