How can I hide a console window?

Question

Question: I have a console program that shouldn't be seen. (It resets IIS and deletes temp files.)

Right now I can manage to hide the window right after start like this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var currentProcess = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess();
    Console.WriteLine(currentProcess.MainWindowTitle);

    IntPtr hWnd = currentProcess.MainWindowHandle;//FindWindow(null, "Your console windows caption"); //put your console window caption here
    if (hWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
    {
        //Hide the window
        ShowWindow(hWnd, 0); // 0 = SW_HIDE
    }

The problem is this shows the window for a blink of a second. Is there any constructor for a console program, where I can hide the window before it is shown?

And second:

I use

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

and I don't like the 32 in it. Is there any way to do this without DllImport ?
A .NET way ?

Solution 1

If you don't need the console (e.g. for Console.WriteLine) then change the applications build options to be a Windows application.

This changes a flag in the .exe header so Windows doesn't allocate a console session when the application starts.

Solution 2

If I understand your question, just create the console process manually and hide the console window:

Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.FileName = "Bogus.exe";
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;

I do this for an WPF app which executes a console app (in a background worker) and redirects standard output so you can display the result in a window if needed. Works a treat so let me know if you need to see more code (worker code, redirection, argument passing, etc.)

Solution 3

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool CloseHandle(IntPtr handle);

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
private static extern bool FreeConsole();

[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I4)]int nStdHandle);

// see the comment below
private enum StdHandle
{
    StdIn = -10,
    StdOut = -11,
    StdErr = -12
};

void HideConsole()
{
    var ptr = GetStdHandle((int)StdHandle.StdOut);
    if (!CloseHandle(ptr))
        throw new Win32Exception();

    ptr = IntPtr.Zero;

    if (!FreeConsole())
        throw new Win32Exception();
}

See more console-related API calls here

Solution 4

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
    [DllImport("kernel32")]
    public static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();
    [DllImport("Kernel32")]
    private static extern bool SetConsoleCtrlHandler(EventHandler handler, bool add);

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        IntPtr hConsole = GetConsoleWindow();
        if (IntPtr.Zero != hConsole)
        {
            ShowWindow(hConsole, 0); 
        }
    }

This should do what your asking.

View more solutions

Comments

[Andreas Rejbrand]

@Si: I think that the OP want to be able to start the "no-window console program" by double-clicking it, for example, not necessarily programmatically from another program.

[Grant Crofton]

Or make it a windows service, although that will have a different lifecycle

[abatishchev]

Create a Windows app and don't create a Windows form

[Dirk Vollmar]

Note that instead of throw new PInvokeExcpetion() normally throw new Win32Exception() or throw Marshal.GetExceptionForHR(Marshal.GetHRForLastWin32Error()); is sufficient. With Win32Exception() you don't have to bother calling GetLastError yourself and then mapping the error code to a meaningful message. Everything is already done for you.

[Dirk Vollmar]

@Grand Crofton: Services are for a long-running or repeating background tasks, not for user-triggered actions like an IIS reset. So a service doesn't seem appropriate here. Unless you want to reset IIS every 5 minutes or so, of course ;-)

[Michael Baldry]

@0xA3: repeating background tasks should not be implemented as a service but as a scheduled task. Having a service running forever when it only actually does something every few mins is a waste of memory, cpu time, coding time (writing a service is a lot more complicated than a console application) and maintainence. Also if you have a memory leak, it'll grow over time in a service, in a scheduled task once the task is finished the process is killed, so it has little effect.

[Stefan Steiger]

lol, works. Just out of interest, if I would want to show the console again [when it is a window application], how would I do that ? ( I mean apart from switching back to console application)

[Richard]

@Quandary: The Win32 API AllocConsole will create a console window for a process without one. But it isn't clear if Console.Out etc. would be hooked up automatically or you would need to use Console.OpenStandardOutput etc.

[si618]

True, I wasn't sure and have had the same need before. One thing I haven't be able to capture is coloured ANSI console output into WPF. See stackoverflow.com/questions/1529254/…

[Bostwick]

You really should have included GetStdHandle in your example (I used an enum to make it clear what the int's are instead of just using the -11..) ** private enum StdHandle { Stdin = -10, Stdout = -11, Stderr = -12 }; private static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(StdHandle std); **

[abatishchev]

@Bostwick: Updated from here. Thanks!