How can I execute a Windows command line in background?

Question

How can I execute a windows command line in the background, without it interacting with the active user?

Can you specify what you want to do? Do you want to perform a command on the command line in background or do you want to perform the whole command line in background, so it is unvisible from the desktop? — oldwired, Oct 12 '10 at 06:20
i need two cane perform a command on the command line in background or do you want to perform the whole command line in background — Mohammad AL-Rawabdeh, Oct 12 '10 at 06:41

score 375 · Answer 1 · answered May 03 '13 at 14:28

375

This is a little late but I just ran across this question while searching for the answer myself and I found this:

START /B program

which, on Windows, is the closest to the Linux command:

program &

From the console HELP system:

C:\>HELP START

Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command.

START ["title"] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
      [/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
      [/NODE <NUMA node>] [/AFFINITY <hex affinity mask>] [/WAIT] [/B]
      [command/program] [parameters]

    "title"     Title to display in window title bar.
    path        Starting directory.
    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.

One problem I saw with it is that you have more than one program writing to the console window, it gets a little confusing and jumbled.

To make it not interact with the user, you can redirect the output to a file:

START /B program > somefile.txt

answered May 03 '13 at 14:28

Novicaine

3,851

5

I like this answer best because it doesn't open another command window – wisbucky Jan 03 '14 at 16:17
12

This doesn't seem to work for me, it seems to only create a new cmd instance [?] however if I run it like start /B "" program then it worked... – rogerdpack Jun 24 '15 at 04:56
4

@rogerdpack That's right. For some reason with Windows 7, this is the command format. The "" is the mandatory title parameter. – ejbytes Jan 30 '16 at 23:58
1

@ejbytes I run Windows 7 and I don't need the empty parameter "" in order for it to work. – HelloGoodbye Apr 13 '16 at 15:26
1

@Novicaine: How do I abort a process I have started that way? Ctrl+c doesn't have any effect on in. – HelloGoodbye Apr 13 '16 at 15:28
22

Unfortunately, if I exit the shell window in which I spawned the process, it looks like the process also terminates. – palswim Jul 21 '16 at 22:36
1

How do you enable ^C processing for such application? – Qwerty Sep 06 '16 at 10:11
2

@Qwerty: Look at the MSDN for SetConsoleCtrlHandler – Zan Lynx Sep 12 '16 at 19:29
This is cool, but is there a way to specify WHICH start to run? I have unfortunately a C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin\start that wants to run instead (I found it with where start. It seems START here is a built-in command, but windows only wants to run the MinGW one. – Fuhrmanator Jul 12 '19 at 08:48
@Novicaine: either open Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and find the process on the list, or use taskkill.exe /im nameofprocess.exe /f. I believe you also have the choice of specifying a PID with taskkill.exe but I'm not sure – airstrike Feb 12 '20 at 03:56
@palswim, I don't know what Windows edition you refer to, but in Windows 10 I tried start /B %WinDir%\System32\Taskmgr.exe, and closing the command-line window did not close Task Manager. – Henke - Нава́льный П с м Nov 23 '20 at 15:25

score 96 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 30 '11 at 19:00

96

I suspect you mean: Run something in the background and get the command line back immediately with the launched program continuing.

START "" program

Which is the Unix equivalent of

program &

edited Sep 30 '11 at 19:00

slhck

228,104

answered Sep 30 '11 at 11:44

Paul Douglas

961

10

what is the fg equivalent? Can we close the command prompt and the porgram will still run? – Joel Peltonen Oct 15 '14 at 11:34
1

Also, I want to run a program in command prompt and return to it from time to time, like in screen - is that doable with this? I need to be able to close the command prompt but keep the running program usable. – Joel Peltonen Oct 15 '14 at 11:36
6

What's that empty parameter of start? It doesn't work without it (executes just a new command instance), but start's help doesn't say anything about it, it states all parameters are optinional (or I don't understand it). – David Ferenczy Rogožan Oct 14 '15 at 17:41
@DawidFerenczy start works without the empty parameter for me, but I seem to get a shells with a separate configuration when I use the empty parameter, as a setting I did when I didn't have the empty parameter isn't used when I do use the empty parameter. I wonder why they use separate configurations? – HelloGoodbye Apr 13 '16 at 15:23
1

@Paul START "" program starts a command in a new terminal for me, while program & in Unix runs the command in and prints the output to the same terminal. – HelloGoodbye Apr 13 '16 at 15:25
@HelloGoodbye Sorry, but I don't understand a single sentence. "the empty parameter isn't used when I do use the empty parameter" doesn't make a sense at all. – David Ferenczy Rogožan Apr 14 '16 at 00:05
@Dawid, I can see that my sentence was a bit ambiguous. "Isn't used" didn't refer to the empty parameter, but to the setting that I did (changed?) when I didn't use the empty parameter. In both cases (with/without the "" parameter), I get a new cmd window. The first time, when I called START without the "" parameter, I changed a setting to the cmd. Later when I called START with the "" parameter, the setting had been undone. – HelloGoodbye Apr 14 '16 at 19:42
@HelloGoodbye It worked for me with a GUI program, closed the command prompt immediately after starting it. I assume you're trying to start a command-line program in the background. – NobleUplift Apr 23 '16 at 20:10

score 55 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 09 '17 at 05:40

55

Your question is pretty vague, but there is a post on ServerFault which may contain the information you need. The answer there describes how to run a batch file window hidden:

You could run it silently using a Windows Script file instead. The Run Method allows you running a script in invisible mode. Create a .vbs file like this one
Dim WinScriptHost
Set WinScriptHost = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WinScriptHost.Run Chr(34) & "C:\Scheduled Jobs\mybat.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WinScriptHost = Nothing
and schedule it. The second argument in this example sets the window style. 0 means "hide the window."

edited Aug 09 '17 at 05:40

Tobias Kienzler

4,521

answered Oct 12 '10 at 06:30

nhinkle

37,390

This is perfect. SetPoint for Logitech never, NEVER, starts with windows. I've been starting it manually for about 3 years now. Does it matter where the batch is? I've seen some people put this type of batch file in C, or the root. – ejbytes Jan 31 '16 at 00:00
4

It really isn't vague if you are used to linux. Just put a & at the end and its backgrounded. – Paul Rooney Feb 08 '21 at 07:14

score 19 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 13 '12 at 06:55

19

START /MIN program

the above one is pretty closer with its Unix counterpart program &

answered Sep 13 '12 at 06:55

Siva Sankaran

341

score 12 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 09 '17 at 05:40

You can use this (commented!) PowerShell script:

# Create the .NET objects
$psi = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$newproc = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
# Basic stuff, process name and arguments
$psi.FileName = $args[0]
$psi.Arguments = $args[1]
# Hide any window it might try to create
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.WindowStyle = 'Hidden'
# Set up and start the process
$newproc.StartInfo = $psi
$newproc.Start()
# Return the process object to the caller
$newproc

Save it as a .ps1 file. After enabling script execution (see Enabling Scripts in the PowerShell tag wiki), you can pass it one or two strings: the name of the executable and optionally the arguments line. For example:

.\hideproc.ps1 'sc' 'stop SomeService'

I confirm that this works on Windows 10.

yep start /b no longer works. – Sajuuk May 06 '18 at 05:32 — Sajuuk, May 06 '18 at 05:32

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 09 '18 at 04:30

5

This is how my PHP internal server goes into background. So technically it should work for all.

start /B "" php -S 0.0.0.0:8000 &

Thanks

answered Jul 09 '18 at 04:30

Suyash Jain

284

score 4 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

4

A related answer, with 2 examples:

Below opens calc.exe:

call START /B "my calc" "calc.exe"

Sometimes foreground is not desireable, then you run minimized as below:

call start /min "n" "notepad.exe"

call START /MIN "my mongod" "%ProgramFiles%\MongoDB\Server\3.4\bin\mongod.exe"

Hope that helps.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 13:48

Community

1

answered Aug 09 '17 at 05:08

Manohar Reddy Poreddy

359

1

This doesn't seem to run it minimized: call Start /MIN "c" "calc.exe" – moondra Mar 12 '18 at 04:19
1

correct, it works for notepad: call start /min "n" "notepad.exe" – Manohar Reddy Poreddy Mar 12 '18 at 06:44
1

So it works for windowed applications but not for console applications. Figures, as one can pass the SW_* to CreateProcessW via STARTUPINFO::wShowWindow (including SW_HIDE). – 0xC0000022L Aug 14 '18 at 18:57
What is a full command, with above like "start" or other tool? do we need to write another program? – Manohar Reddy Poreddy Aug 15 '18 at 01:50
@0xC0000022L No, you just need to pass Process Creation Flag of CREATE_NO_WINDOW, as simple as that. – ScienceDiscoverer Aug 17 '22 at 15:16
@ManoharReddyPoreddy You can use my utility as and example, or as is! – ScienceDiscoverer Aug 17 '22 at 15:17
@ScienceDiscoverer your point being? I was referring to how this answer does not work for console applications and how the flags to start likely map to the underlying API. If you can tell how to achieve the same with start, sure I'll give that a shot. While being a developer, when using NT script I am merely a user of existing facilities. – 0xC0000022L Aug 29 '22 at 07:28

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 30 '11 at 14:00

3

If you want the command-line program to run without the user even knowing about it, define it as a Windows Service and it will run on a schedule.

answered Sep 30 '11 at 14:00

CarlF

8,844

4

how do you do that? – barlop Sep 30 '11 at 19:26
1

Alternatively you can make it a scheduled task - Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Scheduled Tasks or use the schtasks command in Windows XP and above (warning: schtasks is complicated). – LawrenceC Apr 06 '12 at 19:02

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 17 '22 at 15:19

0

You can use my utility. I think the source code should be self explanatory. Basically CreateProcess with CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag.

answered Aug 17 '22 at 15:19

ScienceDiscoverer

385

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 13 '15 at 23:29

just came across this thread windows 7 , using power shell, runs executable's in the background , exact same as unix filename &

example: start -NoNewWindow filename

help start

NAME Start-Process

SYNTAX Start-Process [-FilePath] [[-ArgumentList] ] [-Credential ] [-WorkingDirectory ] [-LoadUserProfile] [-NoNewWindow] [-PassThru] [-RedirectStandardError ] [-RedirectStandardInput ] [-RedirectStandardOutput ] [-Wait] [-WindowStyle {Normal | Hidden | Minimized | Maximized}] [-UseNewEnvironment] []

Start-Process [-FilePath] <string> [[-ArgumentList] <string[]>] [-WorkingDirectory <string>] [-PassThru] [-Verb
<string>] [-Wait] [-WindowStyle <ProcessWindowStyle> {Normal | Hidden | Minimized | Maximized}]
[<CommonParameters>]

ALIASES saps start

I don't have Windows 7 anymore to test this on [Windows 11 here] -- but start.exe is also a command. To make this work, without aliases since 'start' is a different but similar command, call it directly from within PowerShell: Start-Process -NoNewWindow filename — Jeff Clayton, Nov 18 '22 at 13:49

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 03 '15 at 14:10

You can see the correct way to do this in this link:

How to Run a Scheduled Task Without a Command Window Appearing

Summarizing, you have to checkbox for 'Run whether user is logged on or not'. Task user credentials should be enter after pressing 'Ok'.

score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 10 '21 at 10:22

I did this in a batch file: by starting the apps and sending them to the background. Not exact to the spec, but it worked and I could see them start.

rem   Work Start Batch Job from Desktop
rem   Launchs All Work Apps
@echo off
start "Start OneDrive" "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe"
start  "Start Google Sync" "C:\Program Files\Google\Drive\GoogleDriveSync.exe"
start skype
start "Start Teams" "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\current\Teams.exe"
start Slack
start Zoom
sleep 10
taskkill /IM "explorer.exe"
taskkill /IM "teams.exe"
taskkill /IM "skype.exe"
taskkill /IM "slack.exe"
taskkill /IM "zoom.exe"
taskkill /IM "cmd.exe"
@echo on

killing explorer kills all explorer windows, I run this batch file after start up, so killing explorer is no issue for me. You can seemingly have multiple explorer processes and kill them individually but I could not get it to work. killing cmd.exe is to close the CMD window which starts because of the bad apps erroring.

You are launching work apps and then terminating them all ? Why ? — Amit Naidu, Apr 23 '21 at 22:10
Amit, many of the comments in previous questions asked about how to interact/close running programs you open. This is apparently an illustration of how to do that. — Jeff Clayton, Nov 18 '22 at 13:37

How can I execute a Windows command line in background?

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