188

Is there any way to execute an application without waiting in batch file? I have tried the start command but it just creates a new command window.

Anthony Mastrean
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Mark Attwood
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    Note — for those doing involved-ish things with Windows batch-scripts: if a process **C** is ```start```-ed within a ```call```-ed .bat-file **B** (which was in turn called from **A**), and **C** stays open after **B** finishes (say **C** is a service or something that just waits for things to happen and doesn't have a fixed endpoint until the OS shuts down), the parent **A** which contained the ```call``` may not be able to terminate as expected unless the process **C** closes, or is killed. Here's a simple example: http://codepad.org/KLglXDnZ – Seldom 'Where's Monica' Needy May 08 '15 at 21:34

6 Answers6

359

I'm making a guess here, but your start invocation probably looks like this:

start "\Foo\Bar\Path with spaces in it\program.exe"

This will open a new console window, using “\Foo\Bar\Path with spaces in it\program.exe” as its title.

If you use start with something that is (or needs to be) surrounded by quotes, you need to put empty quotes as the first argument:

start "" "\Foo\Bar\Path with spaces in it\program.exe"

This is because start interprets the first quoted argument it finds as the window title for a new console window.

Joey
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  • thanks it helped. I also used /SEPARATE option as mentioned in http://ss64.com/nt/start.html – Ayusman May 09 '13 at 18:30
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    @Ayusman: Those options are just for 16-bit programs. I surely hope you don't have any of those still around. – Joey May 09 '13 at 18:59
  • @Joey I just wrote these options today. The webpage does not seem to mention anything about the 16 bit programs. In the windows command prompt though it makes it clear. I will remove those. Thanks again. – Ayusman May 09 '13 at 22:08
  • @Ayusman: The site you linked notes it directly above those two options. – Joey May 10 '13 at 05:20
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    Of course, it doesn't have to be empty quotes... you can give it an actual relevant title. I would heavily recommend this as it will make it much clearer to other people who see it what is going on. `start "Obligatory Atavistic Window Title" "\Foo\Bar\Path with spaces in it\program.exe"` – shiser Oct 12 '14 at 02:59
  • Most windows applications use their own title, so supplying one wouldn't be beneficial for anything, as the running thread is renamed by the application itself. It's useful for external console commands, but usually you won't use start for them. Conhost won't even display this parameter. Short of maybe making the batch file easier to understand, there's not much use. For that matter, you may as well use a comment rather than title the application – Alex Summers May 05 '17 at 22:13
  • @Vas, take that up with whomever asked the question. Usually it should, but doesn't have to, of course. – Joey Jun 01 '18 at 08:31
  • it works for all windows but not for resource monitor. start "" %windir%\system32\perfmon.exe /res waits until resource monitor starts. – Amir Feb 10 '22 at 12:27
17

I used start /b for this instead of just start and it ran without a window for each command, so there was no waiting.

Ed Bayiates
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9

If your exe takes arguments,

start MyApp.exe -arg1 -arg2
Shital Shah
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4

If start can't find what it's looking for, it does what you describe.

Since what you're doing should work, it's very likely you're leaving out some quotes (or putting extras in).

egrunin
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2

EDIT moved /B parameter/switch to before the command path, as per Nime Cloud's recommendation

I successfully used a combo of @joey's post, with added /B flag, as follows

START "" /B "Path\To\Application.exe"

Partial output from help command: HELP START...

  B  Start application without creating a new window. The
     application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application
     enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt
     the application.
TechSpud
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0

This command starts ClamAV in a seperate console window with custom icon of clamd.exe

start "c:\clamav\clamd.exe" "c:\clamav\clamd.exe"

So the generic format would be like:

start "Your new title" "c:\path\your.exe"
Nime Cloud
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