Invoke EXE from batch file without waiting

Question

How do I invoke an EXE from a batch file without having the latter waiting for the EXE to finish? Something like the Cygwin 'cygstart'?

score 38 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 11 '16 at 20:45

38

Use "start". Type "start /?" at a command prompt.

edited Mar 11 '16 at 20:45

Matt

answered Oct 30 '09 at 05:34

janm

24

Careful, though, if your command contains spaces. In that case you have to use `start "" "command with spaces.exe"` – Joey Oct 30 '09 at 06:46
I see "When executing an application that is a 32-bit GUI application, CMD.EXE does not wait for the application to terminate before returning to the command prompt. **This new behavior does NOT occur if executing within a command script.**" in the output of "start /? on Windows 7" But how make this behaviour if I need?.. – Nashev May 18 '18 at 11:33

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 30 '09 at 05:34

7

put START /B before the command you want to run

answered Oct 30 '09 at 05:34

Andrew Keith

That's the right and better way for me instead of START without /B. The reasons are: * The process act directly to my current cmd, thats important e.g. if want modify somewhat with powershell; * Less system resources are needed because no additional process is opened. – gotwo Apr 13 '20 at 06:45

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 30 '09 at 05:35

4

Just start foo.exe? You need to add /WAIT to make it pause.

answered Oct 30 '09 at 05:35

Marc Gravell

you need `start "sometitle" foo.exe`, or simply `start "" foo.exe` – Peter Oct 30 '21 at 23:21

3 Answers3