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Batch files are a handy way to execute a series of commands in Windows, but is there anyway to run them invisibly in the background? Read on find out how.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
The Question
SuperUser reader Jake wants to run a BAT file invisibly, he writes:
I have installed a ruby gem called Redcar, which is launched from the command line. When it runs, it steals the shell until it terminates, so I have to create a new shell window to continue doing command line work. The shell I'm using is the GITBash shell from MySysGit.
I found a Redcar.bat file which is meant to launch Redcar as a shortcut, I presume, but I don't want the extra command prompt window to open whenever I launch the BAT file.
How do I just run the BAT without seeing the prompt?
Is there a solution for Jake's stealthy prompt desire?
The Answers
SuperUser contributor Afrazier responds with a combination of bad and good news:
You can't -- executing a batch file with the built in Command Prompt is going to keep a window open until the batch file exits.
What you can do is take steps to make sure that the batch file exits as quickly as possible. If at all possible, modify the batch file to run whatever program with the
start command. By default,
start returns immediately without waiting for the program to exit, so the batch file will continue to run and, presumably, exit immediately. Couple that with modifying your shortcut to run the batch file minimized, and you'll only see the taskbar flash without even seeing a window onscreen.
One caveat to this is that if you're running a console-mode program, which many script interpreters are, the batch file will wait for the program to exit, and using
start will spawn a new console window. What you need to do in this case is run the Windows-based version of the interpreter instead of the console-based one -- no
start necessary. For Perl, you would run
wperl .exe instead of
perl .exe . For Python, it's
pythonw .exe instead of
python .exe . The old win32 Ruby distribution I have downloaded has
rubyw .exe , which should do the same thing.
A final possibility is to use a 3rd-party tool to run the command prompt with a hidden window. I've heard of such things but never had a use for them, so I don't know of anything in particular to point you to.
Readers also pointed him to another SuperUser thread that highlights how you can use a Visual Basic Script to go beyond minimizing the visibility and outright hide the CMD prompt. In that thread, Harry MC explains:
Solution 1:
Save this one line of text as file
invisible .vbs :
CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """", 0, False
To run any program or batch file invisibly, use it like this:
wscript.exe "C:\Wherever\invisible.vbs" "C:\Some Other Place\MyBatchFile.bat"
To also be able to pass-on/relay a list of arguments use only two double quotes
CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "" & WScript.Arguments(0) & "", 0, False
eg: Invisible.vbs "Kill.vbs ME.exe"
Solution 2:
Use a command line tool to silently launch a process : Quiet .
Employing any of the above solutions, based on your comfort level using VBS and third party tools or not, will at minimum reduce the visibility of the CMD window or outright remove it.
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
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