hide-win32-console-window

Tool for hiding "black square" of the console window.

Using Windows API we can start new process, a console application, and hide its "black" window. This can be done at process creation and avoid showing "black" window at all.

In CreateProcess function the dwCreationFlags parameter can have CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag:

The process is a console application that is being run
without a console window. Therefore, the console handle
for the application is not set. This flag is ignored if
the application is not a console application

Here is a link to hide-win32-console-window executable using this method and source code.

There is open question: what to do with program's output when its window does not exist? What if exceptions happen? Not a good solution to throw away the output. hide-win32-console-window uses anonymous pipes to redirect program's output to file created in current directory.

Usage

batchscript_starter.exe full/path/to/application [arguments to pass on]

Example running python script

batchscript_starter.exe c:\Python27\python.exe -c "import time; print('prog start'); time.sleep(3.0); print('prog end');"

The output file is created in working directory named python.2019-05-13-13-32-39.log with output from the python command:

prog start
prog end

Example running command

batchscript_starter.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /C dir .

The output file is created in working directory named cmd.2019-05-13-13-37-28.log with output from CMD:

 Volume in drive Z is Storage
 Volume Serial Number is XXXX-YYYY

 Directory of hide_console_project\hide-win32-console-window

2019-05-13  13:37    <DIR>          .
2019-05-13  13:37    <DIR>          ..
2019-05-13  04:41            17,274 batchscript_starter.cpp
2018-04-10  01:08            46,227 batchscript_starter.ico
2019-05-12  11:27             7,042 batchscript_starter.rc
2019-05-12  11:27             1,451 batchscript_starter.sln
2019-05-12  21:51             8,943 batchscript_starter.vcxproj
2019-05-12  21:51             1,664 batchscript_starter.vcxproj.filters
2019-05-13  03:38             1,736 batchscript_starter.vcxproj.user
2019-05-13  13:37                 0 cmd.2019-05-13-13-37-28.log
2019-05-13  04:34             1,518 LICENSE
2019-05-13  13:32                22 python.2019-05-13-13-32-39.log
2019-05-13  04:55                82 README.md
2019-05-13  04:44             1,562 Resource.h
2018-04-10  01:08            46,227 small.ico
2019-05-13  04:44               630 targetver.h
2019-05-13  04:57    <DIR>          x64
              14 File(s)        134,378 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  ???,???,692,992 bytes free

Example shortcut for running .bat script

Target field:

C:\batchscript_starter.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe /C C:\start_wiki.bat

Directory specified in Start in field will hold output files.