Hi, All!

I searched the forum for hid* in titles, but couldn't find anything similar except for cmdow.

Let me introduce a small utility that completely hides console windows. All credit goes to a member of Russian board OSZone.net hasherfrog who wrote the utility exclusively for OSZone.net members and welcomed its sharing with MSFN community. [LOL, that sounds like a huge gift ] In fact, the author didn't have unattended installations in mind, he just wrote an utility in responce to one of the threads. That was me who thought about unattended installations.

The utility is attached to the post.

====Changelog======
06/28/05 The utility size reduced to 1 kb, switch /W made case insensitive, usage window is displayed when run w/o parameters.
06/27/05 Added /W switch
=================

Usage

yourfile can be either a batch file or any command line (console) utility.
/W - (case-insensitive) waits for a batch file or console utility to end

Example of usage:
Runs cleanup.cmd hidden


Runs prepare.cmd hidden and waits until it ends, then runs cleanup.cmd hidden.



Me and the author will give additional info in a form of Questions and Answers.

Q. How is this utility different from cmdow?
A. The only purpose of the utility is to hide the console windows. Unlike cmdow, it doesn't have multiple switches and functions.

When you run you still see a console window "blinking" for a moment before it gets hidden. When you run you don't see any blinking windows.

cmdow can hide a batch file if you include "cmdow @ /HID" line in the file. You still see a console window blinking, though. RunHiddenConsole doesn't have a similar option.

Q. Do I need to specify the path to the utility?
A. Yes, unless you place it somewhere in PATH (%windir%\system32 is a good place)

Q. Can I see the hidden window?
A. Well, didn't you want to hide it? You can see it in the Task Manager. If you ran a batch file, that would be CMD.EXE; otherwise, look for the name of your console utility.

Q. Does it work at T-12 (cmdlinest.txt)?
A. It didn't hide the console window for me. The author is aware of the problem, and may come up with something. He didn't intend the utility to be used for unattended installs and in cmdlines.txt in particular.

Q. The utility name is too long, can I rename it?
A. Sure. The author actually renamed it to hidec.

Q. Can I see the source code?
A. Yes (comments in Russian, though ;-)


Q. How do I compile?
A. The author uses Visual C++ Toolkit and this is how he compiles:
cl hidec.cpp /GA /O1 /link /subsystem:windows kernel32.lib advapi32.lib user32.lib

Q. I have more questions!
A. This is what the thread is for. I'll try to answer them, but the author, probably, will not.

Thanks for your attention. I hope at least one person will find the utility useful; otherwise I wasted my [working] time typing the post LOL

This post has been edited by VAD: Jul 10 2005, 11:01 PM

Good to see one of them MSFN offshoot sites doing creative things I know you know what I mean VAD (reminds me...the Unattended site should be getting an overhaul shortly).

Oh yeah, this reminds me of this topic: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=49103

Sounds similar, though I haven't read your entire post nor theirs

Ah, I see, I should've searched better However, mods search differently, 'cause they read all topics and often remember the titles or even some posts

You can merge this thread with the one you gave the link to, if you wish.

i think you can use cmdow in a similar way. i.e: "cmdow /hid /run path\file.cmd"...

...not sure...

cool adition anyway

edit: after testing, yes, with cmdow you always see a "blinking" command window

This post has been edited by SiMoNsAyS: Jun 24 2005, 05:30 PM

SiMoNsAyS
IMHO, there's a minor difference. I covered it in the first hypothetical question in the first post

oh my mistake, i missed that part!
i'll definetly include this tool on my uA

Hi,
Just a minor problem, RunHiddenConsole.exe doesn't have a switch to wait until completion of batch file execution, so I can't use it in RunOnceEx...

-> Can you implement this, (eg: RunHiddenConsole.exe /WAIT)

ChipCraze23
Well, the utility does what it does No switches available. I can ask the author, but nothing's guaranteed. Consider using the startx utility.

To be honest, I have just one cleanup.cmd in my RunOnceEx routine. Apparently, this is the last file. The first command is shutdown with 60 sec delay, so I have plenty of time to execute the rest of the commands.

Nice util , but I still need to work out a few things to use it.

If I run this tool from cmdlines.txt it appears to sorta work and sorta not.

My daemon.cmd works fine without the rhc.exe. It just seems to skip the daemon.cmd alltogether when I use rhc.exe.
Thought it maybe was cause of running daemon.msi from %CDROM%\$OEM$\ not from %SystemDrive%\Install\.

I have found a difference between STARTX and RunHiddenConsole,

When you start a batch file hidden using RunHiddenConsole, if the batch file contains CMDOW @ /VIS, the batch file can appear, which can be useful (eg: for user input) after being started completely hidden...

But,
when you start the same batch file using StartX, even if the batch file contains CMDOW @ /VIS, the batch file does NOT appear, so I lose this functionality...

--> That's why I'd like to see RunHiddenConsole.exe /WAIT ...

@smashly
That may be the reason, 'cause your batch file has to set the %CDROM% variable first. Put in the beginning of the batch file, if you launch it from cmdlines.txt.

@ChipCraze23
I'm confused. Why do you want to use RHC and display the batch file window? If you want to see the window, don't use any of the hiding utils. Could you please elaborate? Meanwhile, I forwarded your feature request to the author.

I want to use this utility to run a long batch file...

A part of this batch file contains processes I want hidden to prevent cancellation..., then when the program requires user input, the batch window appears directly at the user input part of the batch program...

I've already implemented this using CMDOW @ /HID at the beginning of the batch file and CMDOW @ /VIS at the part where I want the program to be displayed but am annoyed at the brief flashing DOS windows...

I see now. Well, although offtopic, but the obvious solution is to split your batch file in two Run one hidden, run the other visible.

In response to the popular demand: the /W switch has been added. This is the equivavlent of the /WAIT switch for the START console command in Windows. The switch allows to run a batch file and wait until it ends.

The first post has been updated accordingly. Please, re-download the utility.

ty. testing it now.

Hello VAD,
Thanks for the PM and for the update, here's an issue:

1. RunHiddenConsole.exe /W only works when invoked from a batch file.

eg: TEST.CMD


-> When you execute RunHiddenConsole.exe /W test.cmd, it immediately returns to the prompt without waiting for the batch file...

-> But when you CALL "RunHiddenConsole.exe /W test.cmd" from another batch file, it does wait for the batch file to end...

-> But what if I want to run a batch program by invoking RunHiddenConsole.exe from within SVCPACK.INF in Windows Setup, it may not work in that case, as SVCPACK.INF is not a batch file...

--> I will test and report the results....

-> But I still wish the /W switch works from the command line....

Anyway thank you to you and the author for this utility....

ChipCraze23
Well, I don't know about that... I just tested it in RunOnceEx routine. I made two cmd files: each one would ping localhost 5 times and write the results into a different text file for each ping. I ran both files from RunOnceEx with /W switch, and although I couldn't really see the whole execution process, I could see the 10 files and their creation time.

The screenshot is attached (first one). As you can see, they are in a perfect time order. Now look at the second screenshot. The same files ran from RunOnceEx, but without the /W switch. Apparently, the files executed at the same time.

You may have a different testing technique, though, but I can't test this utility from svcpack.inf Post your results.

Here's a batch file I call from DetachedProgram and it works like a charm. I stick 7za.exe and RunHiddenConsole.exe in $OEM$\$$\system32.



Note that a batch from DetachedProgram is hidden by default so there is no need to use RunHiddenConsole.exe with it and the @ECHO OFF is probably unnecessary as well. Anything running from the script is what can take advantage of RunHiddenConsole.exe. Just wanted to show y'all what I use and that it's tested as working without issue.

The utility has been updated again. I guess no further updates will be neccessary. The utility size reduced to 1 kb, switch /W made case-insensitive, usage window is displayed when run w/o parameters. The author renamed the utility to hidec, and this name is displayed in the usage window. You can choose the name you like. You can re-download the utility from the first post.

Thanks for the report, RogueSpear.

Very nice VAD. Will add to my commandline tools. Just ran a test, with a batch file, calling tasklist each minute, for 3 minutes. It works well. CMDOW show the console window as when that command was reached.
Nice work, for just a kb in size.

Thanks VAD.
And thanks to the author.