Is it possible to build a Console app that does not display a console Window when double-clicked?

Question

Related:
Should I include a command line mode in my applications?
How to grab parent process standard output?
Can a console application detect if it has been run from Explorer?

I want to build a console app, that is normally run from the command line.

But, when it is double clicked from within Explorer (as opposed to being run from a cmd.exe prompt) then I'd like the program to NOT display a console window.

I want to avoid this:

Is it possible?

EDIT I guess another way to ask it is, is it possible for a program to know how it was invoked - whether by double-click or by command line ?

I'm working in .NET, on Windows.

EDIT 2: From this Old New Thing blog post I learned some good stuff. Here's what I know now...

In Windows, EXE files are marked as either GUI or non-GUI. With csc.exe, this is selected with /target:winexe or /target:exe. Before the first instruction in the process executes, the Windows kernel sets up the execution environment. At that moment, if the EXE is marked GUI, the kernel sets the stdin/stdout for the process to NULL, and if non-GUI (command-line) the kernel creates a console and sets the stdin/stdout for the process to that console.

When launching the process, if there is no stdin/stdout (== /target:winexe), then the call immediately returns. So, launching a gui app from a cmd.exe, you will immediately get your cmd prompt back. If there is a stdin/stdout, and if run from cmd.exe, then the parent cmd.exe waits for process exit.

The "immediate return" is important because if you code a GUI app to attach to its parent's console, you will be able to do console.writeline, etc. But the cmd.exe prompt is active. The user can type new commands, start a new process, and so on. In other words, from a winexe, simply attaching to the parent console with AttachConsole(-1) will not "turn it into" a console app.

At this point I think the only way to allow an app to use the console if it is invoked from cmd.exe, and NOT use it if it is double-clicked, is to define the exe as a regular console exe (/target:exe), and hide the window on startup if appropriate. You still get a console window appearing briefly.

I still haven't figured how to know whether it was launched from explorer or cmd.exe, but I'm getting closer..

ANSWERS

It is not possible to build a console app that does not display a console window.

It is possible to build a console app that hides its window very quickly, but not so quickly that it is as if the window never appears.

Now, to determine whether a console app was launched from explorer, some have suggested to look at the console it is running in
(from mgb's answer, and KB article 99115) :

  int left = Console.CursorLeft;
  int top = Console.CursorTop;
  bool ProcessWasRunFromExplorer = (left==0 && top==0);

This tells you if the process was launched in its own console, but not whether it was explorer. A double click in explorer would do this, but also a Start.Process() from within an app would do the same thing.

If you want to treat those situations differently, use this to learn the name of the parent process:

  System.Console.WriteLine("Process id: {0}", Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id);
  string name = Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName ;
  System.Console.WriteLine("Process name: {0}", name);
  PerformanceCounter pc = new PerformanceCounter("Process", "Creating Process Id", name);
  Process p = Process.GetProcessById((int)pc.RawValue);
  System.Console.WriteLine("Parent Process id: {0}", p.Id);
  System.Console.WriteLine("Parent Process name: {0}", p.ProcessName);

  // p.ProcessName == "cmd" or "Explorer" etc

To hide the window quickly after the process is launched, use this:

  private static readonly int SW_HIDE= 0;

  [System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
  private static extern Boolean ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 nCmdShow);

  ....
  {
    IntPtr myHandle = Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle;
    ShowWindow(myHandle, SW_HIDE);
  }

If you produce a winexe (a WinForms app), and optionally attach to the parent console when appropriate with AttachConsole(-1), you do not get the equivalent of a regular console app. For a winexe, the parent process (like cmd.exe) will return to the command prompt immediately after starting a GUI application. In other words, the command prompt is active and ready for input while the just-launched process may be emitting output. This is confusing and is probably useful only for debugging winforms apps.

This worked for me.

The test to determine if the program was started in its own console is wrong. Entering `cls & program.exe` at the command line will erroneously state that the program was started in its own console. You could do the same thing from a batch file. Likely there are other ways to defeat the test. — Jim Mischel, Apr 04 '13 at 18:36

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 06 '09 at 21:48

So, I've written tools with both a GUI and a CLI. The hard part was figuring out which one to open - in our case, though, the CLI version had required parameters, so I just opened the GUI if there weren't any parameters. Then, if they did want a console, call a function that looks something like:

private const int ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS = -1;
private const int ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE = 6;
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern bool AttachConsole(int dwProcessId);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern bool AllocConsole();
[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
static extern bool FreeConsole();

private static bool StartConsole()
{
  if (!AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS)) // try connecting to an existing console  
  {  
      if (Marshal.GetLastWin32Error() == ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE) // we don't have a console yet  
      {  
          if (!AllocConsole()) // couldn't create a new console, either  
              return false;  
      }
      else
          return false; // some other error
  }
  return true;
}

Returns whether the console was created. Don't forget to FreeConsole() when you're done!

In our case, of course, if we don't create a console, we create a GUI. It'd be just as easy to create either a console or no UI, though.

EDIT: That totally didn't answer the question in the edit that wasn't there when I started writing that, of course. Other than that our hack was just checking whether it was called with command-line parameters or not.

This is helpful - it lets me create a console app or not at runtime. The key thing is, how to determine whether a console is present. I think that is AttachConsole(-1), but even when that returns 0, I don't know how to suppress the console when it is not present. I'll have to try a few things. thanks — Cheeso, Oct 06 '09 at 22:01

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 06 '09 at 21:21

6

Just build it as a Windows Forms app, but don't give it a GUI. Unfortunately then you won't get any console output when it's run from the command line either... is that a problem?

answered Oct 06 '09 at 21:21

Jon Skeet

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Thinking about this a little more, I don't think this will work. I know how to make an EXE either a console app or a WinForms app at runtime, using pinvoke on AttachConsole(). But I don't know how to determine when to make it a console app or a Winforms app. I don't know how to detect if it was lauched by a double-click in explorer, or launched from a console window. – Cheeso Oct 06 '09 at 21:44
Why not use a command line argument to select console display mode? That way when run from Explorer, it won't have one; unless you create a shortcut and add the argument there - allowing you to have both with and without console launches from Explorer. – Clifford Oct 06 '09 at 21:52
That doesn't quite do it for me. First because I don't want the behavior to be command-line selectable. I want it to be automatic. Second because using the parent's console isn't the same as being a regular console app. See the blog post from Old New Thing http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/01/01/9259142.aspx for an explanation of why. – Cheeso Oct 07 '09 at 00:03
How about this solution? https://stackoverflow.com/a/66607616/463571 – Anton Norko Mar 12 '21 at 21:47
@AntonNorko: That basically *is* the solution I gave in 2009. – Jon Skeet Mar 13 '21 at 07:00

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

3

See Can a Win32 console application detect if it has been run from the explorer or not?

Or I think the official way is to check the parent process is cmd.exe or explorer.exe

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Oct 06 '09 at 21:45

Martin Beckett

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 12 '21 at 21:45

3

You can build Windows App which does not have a console window:

Go to project properties > Application and change output type from Console to Windows Application.

That's it.

answered Mar 12 '21 at 21:45

Anton Norko

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score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 28 '14 at 13:19

1

Would this be more like a Service then?

OR

What About a Windows Forms application that doesn't have a visible form? It would still show up in the Task Manager Processes list.

edited Nov 28 '14 at 13:19

bluish

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answered Oct 06 '09 at 21:24

Aaron Hoffman

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score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jun 03 '13 at 17:42

I haven't read everything thru, but did this (a little while ago, more testing needed):

DWORD proc[2],procsfound=GetConsoleProcessList(proc,ELEMS(proc));
if (procsfound>1)
// I'm started as a command in cmd.exe
else
// started from explorer or other non-console parent

IFF there's more than one proc attached, I need to restore the console which I manipulated, otherwise not. May be useful, at least it's simplicity itself. Start the code from VS will yield a single attached proces, running it from commandprompt did activate the branch to clean up my mess. Btw, a console launched from explorer or other non-console app will have a zero-length title?

Is it possible to build a Console app that does not display a console Window when double-clicked?

6 Answers6

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