Letting a Batch file Minimize a DOS window?

Question

So i'm kinda into MS-DOS and such again, but i came to ask myself, How can i minimize a DOS window? Any kind would be ok, minimalize, shrink to a tiny blue block.

I just can't seem to find a way to let it work on my Windows XP computer, is realy evrything excluded in XP?!

Answer 1

You can start a program in a new minimised window using the start command:

start /min your_command_here

Answer 2

You can't. Not in DOS. DOS has no concepts of windows.

In Windows you could write a little program that will look up your window and send it the appropriate message causing it to minimize. The same way you could also maximize or hide/show your window.

Answer 3

One thing you could do is create a windows program that will find the title of the cmd window you are running in and in that program minimize it. In Win32 you would use the FindWindow command to get a window handle, then CloseWindow to minimize it. Something like this totally untested program:

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    HWND wnd = FindWindow(      
        NULL,
        argv[1]
        );
    CloseWindow(wnd);
    return 0;
}

Within the cmd window you could set the title to some string that you define (to avoid ambiguities) and then pass that name to the program to your program:

C:\>title TitleOfWindowToMiniMize

C:\>minimizeWindow TitleOfWindowToMiniMize