Hide Command Window of .BAT file that Executes Another .EXE File

Question

This is a batch file in Windows.

Here is my .bat file

@echo off
copy "C:\Remoting.config-Training" "C:\Remoting.config"

"C:\ThirdParty.exe"

This works fine except the .bat file leaves the command window open the whole time the "ThirdParty" application is running.
I need the command window to close.

I would use the short-cut for the application but I must be able to run this copy command first (it actually changes which data base and server to use for the application).

The ThirdParty application does not allow the user to change the source of the db or the application server.

We're doing this to allow users to change from a test environment to the production environment.

Answer 1

I haven't really found a good way to do that natively, so I just use a utility called hstart which does it for me. If there's a neater way to do it, that would be nice.

Answer 2

Try this:

@echo off 
copy "C:\Remoting.config-Training" "C:\Remoting.config"
start C:\ThirdParty.exe
exit

Answer 3

Using start works for me:

@echo off copy "C:\Remoting.config-Training" "C:\Remoting.config"
start C:\ThirdParty.exe

EDIT: Ok, looking more closely, start seems to interpret the first parameter as the new window title if quoted. So, if you need to quote the path to your ThirdParty.exe you must supply a title string as well.

Examples:

:: Title not needed:
start C:\ThirdParty.exe

:: Title needed
start "Third Party App" "C:\Program Files\Vendor\ThirdParty.exe"

Answer 4

Please use this one, the above does not work. I have tested in Window server 2003. @echo off copy "C:\Remoting.config-Training" "C:\Remoting.config" Start /I "" "C:\ThirdParty.exe" exit

Answer 5

Using start works fine, unless you are using a scripting language. Fortunately, there's a way out for Python - just use pythonw.exe instead of python.exe:

:: Title not needed:
start pythonw.exe application.py

In case you need quotes, do this:

:: Title needed
start "Great Python App" pythonw.exe "C:\Program Files\Vendor\App\application.py"