start a process in a .bat file but hide it?

Question

I would like to launch one of my apps inside a .bat file but it is visible and taking up space in my taskbar. How do i launch the app and not have it visible?

Answer 1

Assuming you want to open an application and have the DOS prompt go away immediately, use start <command> in your .bat file instead of just <command>

Answer 2

Here's a utility I wrote years ago to do this:

#include <windows.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "user32.lib")

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int)
{
  const char *p = GetCommandLine();
  if (*p == '"') {
    p++;
    while (*p && *p != '"') {
      p++;
    }
    p++;
  } else {
    while (*p && *p != ' ') {
      p++;
    }
  }
  while (*p == ' ') {
    p++;
  }
  if (*p == 0) {
    MessageBox(NULL, "Usage: nocli <command>\nExecute <command> without a command prompt window.", "nocli Usage", MB_OK);
    return 1;
  }
  //if (MessageBox(NULL, p, "nocli debug", MB_OKCANCEL) != IDOK) return 1;
  STARTUPINFO si;
  ZeroMemory(&si, sizeof(si));
  si.cb = sizeof(si);
  PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
  if (CreateProcess(NULL, const_cast<char *>(p), NULL, NULL, FALSE, DETACHED_PROCESS, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi)) {
    CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
    WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE);
    DWORD exitcode;
    GetExitCodeProcess(pi.hProcess, &exitcode);
    CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
    return exitcode;
  } else {
    MessageBox(NULL, "Error executing command line", "nocli", MB_OK);
    return 1;
  }
  return 0;
}

No guarantees, but it worked for me in one situation at one time. :)

Answer 3

If your not afraid to use Perl then this will do the trick

use Win32::GUI;
Win32::GUI::Hide(scalar(Win32::GUI::GetPerlWindow()));