How can I run a windows batch file but hide the command window?

Question

How can I run a windows batch file but hiding the command window? I dont want cmd.exe to be visible on screen when the file is being executed. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Native C++ codified version of Oleg's answer -- this is copy/pasted from a project I work on under the Boost Software License.

BOOL noError;
STARTUPINFO startupInfo;
PROCESS_INFORMATION processInformation;
ZeroMemory(&startupInfo, sizeof(startupInfo));
startupInfo.cb = sizeof(startupInfo);
startupInfo.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
startupInfo.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;
noError = CreateProcess(
    NULL,                                           //lpApplicationName
    //Okay the const_cast is bad -- this code was written a while ago.
    //should probably be &commandLine[0] instead. Oh, and commandLine is
    //a std::wstring
    const_cast(commandLine.c_str()),        //lpCommandLine
    NULL,                                           //lpProcessAttributes
    NULL,                                           //lpThreadAttributes
    FALSE,                                          //bInheritHandles
    CREATE_NO_WINDOW | CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT,  //dwCreationFlags
    //This is for passing in a custom environment block -- you can probably
    //just use NULL here.
    options.e ? environment : NULL,                 //lpEnvironment
    NULL,                                           //lpCurrentDirectory
    &startupInfo,                                   //lpStartupInfo
    &processInformation                             //lpProcessInformation
);

if(!noError)
{
    return GetLastError();
}

DWORD exitCode = 0;

if (options.w) //Wait
{
    WaitForSingleObject(processInformation.hProcess, INFINITE);
    if (GetExitCodeProcess(processInformation.hProcess, &exitCode) == 0)
    {
        exitCode = (DWORD)-1;
    }
}

CloseHandle( processInformation.hProcess );
CloseHandle( processInformation.hThread );