winapi: CreateProcess but hide the process' window?

Question

I am using CreateProcess to create a cmd.exe process that is passed a parameter that it executes and quits, this makes command prompt flash up on the screen.

I tried to avoid this by setting STARTUPINFO struct wShowWindow to SW_HIDE but this parameter seems to affect the calling window, not the window for the process that gets executed.

Is there anyway that you can use createprocess to launch a program that is hidden from view?

Also what is the proper winapi standard way to get enviroment variables?

Answer 1

set the STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW in dwFlags

by sharptooth

Answer 2

The following link here describes how to create the window silently:

DWORD RunSilent(char* strFunct, char* strstrParams)
{
    STARTUPINFO StartupInfo;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcessInfo;
    char Args[4096];
    char *pEnvCMD = NULL;
    char *pDefaultCMD = "CMD.EXE";
    ULONG rc;

    memset(&StartupInfo, 0, sizeof(StartupInfo));
    StartupInfo.cb = sizeof(STARTUPINFO);
    StartupInfo.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
    StartupInfo.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;

    Args[0] = 0;

    pEnvCMD = getenv("COMSPEC");

    if(pEnvCMD){

     strcpy(Args, pEnvCMD);
    }
    else{
     strcpy(Args, pDefaultCMD);
    }

    // "/c" option - Do the command then terminate the command window
    strcat(Args, " /c "); 
    //the application you would like to run from the command window
    strcat(Args, strFunct);  
    strcat(Args, " "); 
    //the parameters passed to the application being run from the command window.
    strcat(Args, strstrParams); 

    if (!CreateProcess( NULL, Args, NULL, NULL, FALSE,
     CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE, 
     NULL, 
     NULL,
     &StartupInfo,
     &ProcessInfo))
    {
     return GetLastError();  
    }

    WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInfo.hProcess, INFINITE);
    if(!GetExitCodeProcess(ProcessInfo.hProcess, &rc))
     rc = 0;

    CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
    CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);

    return rc;

}

I think getenv and setenv are all okay? I am not sure what you are asking about in that respect.

Answer 3

This might be an overkill for your needs, but you can hook the ShowWindow API and never show any windows for that process

Answer 4

If its just a console app you can also use the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag as part of the CreateProcess call itself, e.g.

CreateProcess(NULL, lpszCommandLine, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 
              CREATE_NO_WINDOW, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi);

Also, see this page for information about environment variables.