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Is it possible to completely hide the GUI of a program that cant run silently. I have manged to get my bat files to process hidden using the solution from the link below, but some of the batches call on GUI'd programs. I dont mind third party solutions as long as they also run from cmd as I am basing my project around it.

Run a batch file in a completely hidden way

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David
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  • What problem are you trying to solve exactly? There are ways to hide an application but it requires the source code to the application – Ramhound Oct 07 '14 at 18:54
  • I am trying to put together a AV scanning solution for my company using various scanners like Roguekiller, JunkWare Removal, MAlwarebytes, etc. Some of them already have command line switches for silent runs. – David Oct 07 '14 at 19:07
  • Here is an example of a program I cant get to run silently: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/. It has switches but none for silent runs – David Oct 07 '14 at 19:29

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You can do something close with Autoit

The only criteria is that you must know the title of the window that you want to hide.

For example, if I wanted to open up a new notepad instance and then hide it, I could do so with this:

ShellExecute("notepad.exe") ;start notepad
WinWait("Untitled - Notepad", "") ;pause execution until window loads
WinSetState("Untitled - Notepad", "", @SW_HIDE) ;hide window

Autoit can also manipulate the controls on the window to take specific actions (eg, press buttons)

You'll still see it pop up briefly, though - so it won't be truly silent.

MaQleod
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  • Excellent. This seems like it will do the trick. Changed SW_SHOW to SW_HIDE. Will see how far I can take this with my batch files and related programs. The "convert to exe" feature will be golden for portability and remote deployment. Thank you – David Oct 07 '14 at 20:41
  • right, it was supposed to be hide, I copied that line from after I brought my window back and forgot to change it - editing the answer to correctly reflect that. – MaQleod Oct 07 '14 at 21:27