hey.. is there anyway to get the batch files which are run at teh end of setup to exit using the 'exit' command as it works in XP?
so that it doesn't just show "FINISHED..." on the title, but closes the batch screen...?
thanx.
tried a few things.. but no luck.. maybe use of a "kill.exe" ? anyone use this?

another question... i think i saw this being mentioned, but search turned up with nothing..
my batch file keeps on looping, after i close it, it'll start again. it went out of the loop only when i closed the command box before installation was completed.. any idea's on what's up? (no.. i batch file isn't calling it self! lol)

I got this trick from another member in this forum:

In Windows right click the batch file and select Properties. On one tab (I think it is the last one) there is an option to close the dos box on exit.
Once you did this a pif file with the same name as the batch file will be created. Copy these 2 files to your unattended folder.

Also I have an empty line after the last command in each batch file. You might to try this, too.

You can test it in Windows by double clicking.

I don't know why your batch-file is calling itself repeatedly - if you used the code I previously gave, as it is it works fine.


Now for a "kill" command to enable us to have it done automatically (instead of having to close the command window manually). It seems that the win98 resource-kit itself has the required function.There's 2 problems with the above:
one, the reskit download address doesn't seem to work anymore.
two, using the kill.exe from the reskit, will require you to specify the ProcessID - which might vary everytime.



So if you want to kill the process name instead, save the below code as killer.vbs (or whatever) and run it just before the "EXIT" command.You can run it with the command:And how to copy killer.vbs to %windir% in the first place? Put the file in your cabs folder, and add the file-name to the list of files to copy, in MSBATCH.INF.

Another way to get the window to close (without PIFs) is to put this at the end of your batch:

Wireless - thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! That issue's been jacking me off for ages! The only downside to use of exit (in redistributable scripts only of course) is that there's no easy way (that I know of) to establish how the batch file was started. If it's started via "Windows" methods all is good and well but if executed via a DOSbox commandline 'exit' can be a rather rude way to end a batch file. I found the same applied with AmigaDOS - lots of scripts being written using 'endcli' to handle the same problem (shortcuts had no "close on exit"), all assuming that they were started via the GUI rather than from a commandline. Anyhows... thankyou, thankyou,...

It seems the exit isn't needed at all, you can just end your batch file with a CLS to close the window (in Win98SE at least). Thanks again Wireless.

Err... nil, CLS stands for clear screen. It has nothing to do with exiting the batch file. I don't know some people have this problem but it must be the way the batch file is called cause all the batch files I've ever written exit unless you stick the PAUSE command in.

One way to stop this happening if say you wanted to call it automatically (and have close) and manually and keep the screen would be something like this. If the batch file you want to run is called DOSTUFF.BAT then wrap it up in another batch file to do the pause like so:

WAIT.BAT
------------
CALL DOSTUFF.BAT
PAUSE

Then you can call DOSTUFF.BAT directly this will not wait or call it by calling WAIT.BAT. If you don't include CALL in WAIT.BAT then DOSTUFF.BAT will not return back to WAIT.BAT and so it won't do the pause.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Confirmed WORKS with
On Windows98 the command window close itself, and works too with xp/2k ... so it's more easy to make a compatible unattended install ...

Goodbye.

edit: yes "cls" is for cleaning the screen but the method works so just Microsoft can make this

Pedantically, you're right. CLS has nothing to do with exiting a batch file. And neither does EXIT (which is designed to end a command-line shell, not batch processes). None of which helps explain why your presumptions are flawed.

The issue being refered to was the closing of the console window which remains open, in some cases, after a batch process ends. That issue is caused by the use of any command which sends output to the console device and the solution to the problem does involve the use of CLS (and not EXIT - see below). Your disbelief is understandable (it certainly isn't a logical solution) but I can tell you it sure does work.

You can test it for yourself by creating a batch file with the following lines on the desktop and double-clicking the file:



When the batch process ends the console window remains open (on all Win9x systems that I've tested it on at least) and needs to be closed manually. Now edit the file to read as follows:



As no output is sent to the console (PAUSE's output is redirected to the "nul" device) you should find that the window will close automagically when the batch file ends (which won't happen in this case if you forget to press any key...).

The how and why is beyond me but getting the window to auto-close after one or more commands have output to the console seems to require the use of CLS, eg:



See, I told ya CLS stands for CLose Sceen!

The CLS needn't be at the end of the file by the way, just ensure no command sends output to the console after the CLS is issued. The following example batch file will also auto-close:



Note that the use of EXIT in a batch file appears to be absolutely unnecessary for the purpose of auto-closing an orphan console window (and needn't be prepended with a '@' if it is used within a batch file as the command produces no output).

Again, the intended purpose of EXIT is to close the commandline shell it is issued from, and while it can be used to "exit" a batch file it's a rather crude (and arrogant) way of handling it (on someone else's system). Batch file execution ends when the command line interpreter reaches the end of the file so for a far more user friendly approach (and to stop us DOSbox users chucking cold pricklies at you) try using GOTO instead:



Anyhow I would be interested in hearing of any case where the CLS/EXIT combination (rather than CLS alone) is actually required.

Cheers.

no post

@ Sonic - were you going to ask what a "cold pricky" was? Warm fuzzies to you all!

I'm french, can you explain more your post (what 'cold pricky' ?) ... I think it's joke, no ?

Off topic:

Hi Sonic. It was meant as nothing more than friendly humour (I was essentially poking fun at myself for being a "hippy" in public ) though I obviously need to work on my delivery style...

The terms "warm fuzzy" and "cold prickly" were coined by the famed psychologist Claude Steiner (born in Paris coincidently) and can be found within his childrens fable "A Warm Fuzzy Tale". (A french translation of the complete story can be found at http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzyfr.htm; see http://www.claudesteiner.com/fuzzy.htm for the english version.)

Some excerpts from the story:


In writing "to stop us DOSbox users chucking cold pricklies at you" I simply meant that DOSbox users might not appreciate batch file coders using EXIT to kill a batch process (which is little different to writing an executable that shut down the Windows GUI when the program ended). Anyhow, while I imagined the meaning of what I wrote would be understood well enough I did wonder if only peacenik dinasaurs like myself knew what the term "cold pricky" refered to, and that's what was going through my mind when I replied to your "no post" post.

Again, no offense meant. And warm fuzzies to you my friend.

Edit: I hope the following isn't misconstrued but I found it way too funny to keep to myself. I just emailed a friend about the above and her deadpan reply was "Maybe he thought you were ragging him with hedgehog jokes :*|" (obviously refering to that very cool and definately prickly computer game character "Sonic the Hedgehog"). ROTFL! Cheers again.