I was wondering if anyone knows a way to use the system function (or any function that would be like entering a command in the DOS prompt) from a Windows application and not have it bring up DOS prompt while the command is executing? If it makes a difference, the application is probably only going to be used on computers with Win98.<br>
<br>
Thanks in advance,<br>
Justin

Yes there is, it's called Console Applications. There are a bunch of API's for a<br>
console app (i.e. WriteConsole, ect.).<br>
<br>
You can get there structions in the Win32 Programmers Reference. I'm assuming<br>
that you do not have it, otherwise, you probally wouldn't have asked that question.<br>
<br>
Hope that helped,<br>
*unknown*<br>
<br>
P.S. I included a link that will download it for you. It's about 5 megs.


URL:http://www.multimania.com/crimstuff/win32.zip

I guess my question wasn't very clear. What I am trying to do is get a GUI Windows application (one that normaly uses WinMain as opposed to main) to use the system function without displaying a console window. I've also already tried using the Windows API console functions, but whenever I call AllocConsole, it shows the console window too.<br>
<br>
Justin

Hello Justin,<br>
<br>
I have no compiler in this machine (I installed Visual Studio 7 beta over VC++ 5.0 and neither is working :) but what would happen if you run a console app with CreateProcess with SW_HIDE? You can easily get the console window handle with EnumThreadWindows maybe and WM_CLOSE or DestroyWindow it. <br>
<br>
If that works, then maybe you can write a simple console app that receives the actual "dos" command through the command line and run that.<br>
<br>
Just a thought.<br>
<br>
: I guess my question wasn't very clear. What I am trying to do is get a GUI Windows application (one that normaly uses WinMain as opposed to main) to use the system function without displaying a console window. I've also already tried using the Windows API console functions, but whenever I call AllocConsole, it shows the console window too.<br>
: <br>
: Justin<br>
: <br>
<br>

You can specify the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag in CreateProcess under Windows NT. The DETACHED_PROCESS flag may also have the same effect, and would be more portable.<br>
<br>
Sunlight

Thanks to everyone who replied, I've gotten it working now. I ended up using KMS's method of calling CreateProcess using SW_HIDE in the STARTUPINFO paramiter to execute a console app I wrote that passes its command line to the system() function.<br>
<br>
My biggest problem was waiting for the command to complete before doing anything else, which I finally got done by waiting for GetExitCodeProcess to stop giving me STILL_ACTIVE in a while loop. I didn't seem to need to use EnumThreadWindows or DestroyWindow, it seems the console app automatically closes when it finishes executing.<br>
<br>
Thanks Again,<br>
Justin

Greetings<br>
I could be way of base, but... I recently wrote a<br>
dialog based GUI loader for Win2k SP1 to handle all the commandline switches etc. useing the ShellExecute() function with seperate buffers for the target .exe & commandline switches. if you think it might help I'll Email the source/project file to you.<br>
<br>
Stoic Joker<br>
<br>
: I was wondering if anyone knows a way to use the system function (or any function that would be like entering a command in the DOS prompt) from a Windows application and not have it bring up DOS prompt while the command is executing? If it makes a difference, the application is probably only going to be used on computers with Win98.<br>
: <br>
: Thanks in advance,<br>
: Justin<br>
: <br>
<br>

: I was wondering if anyone knows a way to use the system function (or any function that would be like entering a command in the DOS prompt) from a Windows application and not have it bring up DOS prompt while the command is executing? If it makes a difference, the application is probably only going to be used on computers with Win98.
:
: Thanks in advance,
: Justin
:
:
the system function should work. you need to include dos.h and the system function arguements are just a string. the string is what you want the dos shell to do. the shell does not show or at least should not show.

Take this i try it my self
(1) from inside your program make a batch file containing all
the DOS commands you want and name it "c:\c.bat"
use fopen,fwrite,fclose so simple.

(2) make a new Win32 program and call it "t.exe" and put this code on it.

#include <winbase.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include<stdlib.h>

int PASCAL WinMain(HINSTANCE hCurInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
SetWindowLong(/*your App handle*/, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW);
system("c:\\c.bat");
return 0;
}

(3) Execute this program from inside your main program like this

WinExec("t.exe",SW_HIDDEN);


Gooooooooood bye

Use
#include<winbase.h>
then:
WinExec("Full path with arguments",SW_HIDDEN);

Ha ha ha hooooooooooooooo