How can I run a CMD or .bat file in silent mode? I'm looking to prevent the CMD interface from being shown to the user.
Include the phrase:
#echo off
right at the top of your bat script.
I have proposed in StackOverflow question a way to run a batch file in the background (no DOS windows displayed)
That should answer your question.
Here it is:
From your first script, call your second script with the following line:
wscript.exe invis.vbs run.bat %*
Actually, you are calling a vbs script with:
the [path]\name of your script
all the other arguments needed by your script (%*)
Then, invis.vbs will call your script with the Windows Script Host Run() method, which takes:
intWindowStyle : 0 means "invisible windows"
bWaitOnReturn : false means your first script does not need to wait for your second script to finish
See the question for the full invis.vbs script:
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """" & sargs, 0, False
^
means "invisible window" ---|
Update after Tammen's feedback:
If you are in a DOS session and you want to launch another script "in the background", a simple /b (as detailed in the same aforementioned question) can be enough:
You can use start /b second.bat to launch a second batch file asynchronously from your first that shares your first one's window.
I think this is the easiest and shortest solution to running a batch file without opening the DOS window, it can be very distracting when you want to schedule a set of commands to run periodically, so the DOS window keeps popping up, here is your solution.
Use a VBS Script to call the batch file ...
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell" )
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "C:\Batch Files\ mycommands.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing
Copy the lines above to an editor and save the file with .VBS extension. Edit the .BAT file name and path accordingly.
Use Advanced BAT to EXE Converter from http://www.battoexeconverter.com
This will allow you to embed any additional binaries with your batch file in to one stand alone completely silent EXE and its freeware
Use Bat To Exe Converter to do this
http://download.cnet.com/Bat-To-Exe-Converter/3000-2069_4-10555897.html (Choose Direct Download Link)
1 - Open Bat to Exe Converter, select your Bat file.
2 - In Option menu select "Invisible Application", then press compile button.
Done!
Try SilentCMD. This is a small freeware program that executes a batch file without displaying the command prompt window.
If i want to run command promt in silent mode, then there is a simple vbs command:
Set ws=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
ws.Run "TASKKILL.exe /F /IM iexplore.exe"
if i wanted to open an url in cmd silently, then here is a code:
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Return = WshShell.Run("iexplore.exe http://otaxi.ge/log/index.php", 0)
'wait 10 seconds
WScript.sleep 10000
Set ws=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
ws.Run "TASKKILL.exe /F /IM iexplore.exe"
I'm pretty confident I like this method the best. Copy and paste the code below into a .vbs file. From there you'll call the batch file... so make sure you edit the last line to specify the path and name of the batch file (which should contain the file you'd like to launch or perform the actions you need performed)
Const HIDDEN_WINDOW = 12
strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set objStartup = objWMIService.Get("Win32_ProcessStartup")
Set objConfig = objStartup.SpawnInstance_
objConfig.ShowWindow = HIDDEN_WINDOW
Set objProcess = GetObject("winmgmts:root\cimv2:Win32_Process")
errReturn = objProcess.Create("C:\PathOfFile\name.bat", null, objConfig, intProcessID)
It definitely worked for me. Comments are welcomed :)
Another way of doing it, without 3rd party programs nor converters ("batch to exe" programs actually just put your batch file in the tmp folder and then run it silently so anyone can just fetch it from there an get your code) no vbs files (because nobody knows vbs) just one line at the beginning of the batch file.
#echo off > NUL
The below silent .bat file code prevents the need to have two bat files (using "goto" and ":").
It does it all in the same .bat file. Tested and confirmed working in Windows 10
Make sure you replace "C:\pathToFile\ThisBatFile.bat " with the path to this same .bat file! Keep the space after ".bat".
#echo off
if [%1]==[] (
goto PreSilentCall
) else (
goto SilentCall
)
:PreSilentCall
REM Insert code here you want to have happen BEFORE this same .bat file is called silently
REM such as setting paths like the below two lines
set WorkingDirWithSlash=%~dp0
set WorkingDirectory=%WorkingDirWithSlash:~0,-1%
REM below code will run this same file silently, but will go to the SilentCall section
cd C:\Windows\System32
if exist C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs ( del C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs /f /q )
echo CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "C:\pathToFile\ThisBatFile.bat " ^& WScript.Arguments(0), 0, False > C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs
wscript.exe C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs Initialized
if %ERRORLEVEL%==0 (
echo Successfully started SilentCall code. This command prompt can now be exited.
goto Exit
)
:SilentCall
cd %WorkingDirectory%
REM Insert code you want to be done silently.
REM Make sure this section has no errors as you won't be able to tell if there are any,
REM since it will be running silently. You can add a greater than symbol at the end of
REM your commands in this section to output the results to a .txt file for the purpose
REM of debugging this section of code.
:Exit
If your .bat file needs more than just the "Initialized" argument (which tells the bat file to go to :SilentCall section), add "^& WScript.Arguments(1)," , "^& WScript.Arguments(2)," ,etc. depending on the number of arguments, then edit the line where wscript.exe is called:
"wscript.exe C:\Windows\Temp\invis.vbs Initialized BatFileArgOne BatFileArgTwo"
I'm created RunApp to do such a job and also using it in my production env, hope it's helps.
The config like below:
file: config.arg
:style:hidden
MyBatchFile.bat
arg1
arg2
And launch runapp.exe instead.
I am making a API for Batch. One of its functions is a colortext, which uses PowerShell (and findstr if PowerShell is not supported on the machine) to do its work. (It simply converts the batch color given, like 3C, converts it to PowerShell-friendly names, like DarkCyan and Red, and prints the text given in color using more things.)
However, when I try to set the foreground as F (White), for some reason it tries to execute it 2 or 4 times (depending if I have Delayed Expansion enabled or not).
It sometimes fails on the last run/try showing the same thing if the supposed %fcn% and %bcn% never were applied. (this also depends if I have Delayed Expansion enabled or not).
I only want this to execute one time (and not fail for whatever reason), but it's executing 2 or 4 times for some reason. How would I do/fix this program?
Here's the minimal code needed to reproduce this problem, assuming %bcn%, %fcn% and %text% are already set (let's say Cyan as %bcn% and White as %fcn%, and Should not happen as %text%):
#echo off
set bcn=Cyan
set fcn=White
set text="This should not work"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set script=write-host %text% -ForegroundColor %fcn% -BackgroundColor %bcn%
if EXIST colortest.ps1 ( del colortest.ps1 )
echo %script% >> colortest.ps1
#echo on
#powershell -executionpolicy remotesigned -file colortest.ps1
#echo off
The output of this becomes:
If I do a color that works (like CD), with the same text:
EDIT: Since no one seems to say "Hey it's working perfectly", I meant about the second bogus execution, I know this works fine, I'm just trying to get rid of the bogus second execution.
Here is the entire code of the batch file (save it as bapi.bat and try to run "bapi colortext "This should not work" BF") in a pastebin:
http://pastebin.com/WyayVUVS
The problem can't be reproduced with the posted batch code and the values for the environment variables.
However some suggestions as partly also posted by aschipfl in his comment.
1. Deletion of a single file
The deletion of a single file can be done with either
if exist colortest.ps1 del colortest.ps1
or with
del colortest.ps1 2>nul
The first command line checks first if the file to delete exists and runs command DEL only if the file really exists.
The second command line runs the command DEL and redirects an error message written to handle STDERR to device NUL to suppress it. Command DEL outputs an error message if the file to delete does not exist at all.
On running just a single command after an IF or in a FOR loop it is really not necessary to write this command line in round brackets which define a command block. FOR and IF are designed for execution of a single command and using ( ... ) which defines a command block is just an extension of Windows command processor to be able to run multiple commands where a single command is expected by design.
2. Redirection to file with overwriting existing file
It is possible here to use just > instead of >> to create or overwrite colortest.ps1. This avoids the need to separately delete the file before.
See also the Microsoft article Using command redirection operators.
3. Space character between output text and redirection operator
On the command line
echo %script% >> colortest.ps1
there is a space character between environment variable reference %script% and redirection operator >>. This space character is also output by command ECHO and therefore also written into the file as trailing space.
This does not matter here, but often trailing spaces are not wanted in produced file. One solution is removing the space character and use:
echo %script%>> colortest.ps1
But this can result in an unexpected behavior if the string of environment variable script ends with a space and a single digit number in range of 1 to 9 as this results after preprocessing this command line before execution in 1>> colortest.ps1 or 2>> colortest.ps1, ... which is a redirection of handle 1 to 9 to file colortest.ps1 instead of printing 1 to 9 to handle STDOUT and finally to the file.
The solution is writing the redirection first and next the command
>>colortest.ps1 echo %script%
or use delayed expansion which would be here even better in case of script PowerShell script line contains special characters.
echo !script!>>colortest.ps1
The space character between >> and file name colortest.ps1 is ignored by Windows command interpreter.
4. Quoting parameter strings with special characters
The environment variable text could hold a text which requires double quoting this parameter string for correct processing by Windows command interpreter and by PowerShell. A space character (delimiter on command line) and the characters &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~<>| require often enclosing the entire parameter string in double quotes for being interpreted completely as literal text.
set "script=write-host "!text!" -ForegroundColor %fcn% -BackgroundColor %bcn%"
See also answer on Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line? why set "script=script line" is used instead of just set script=script line and why it does not matter how many double quotes are specified in the script line on assigning it to the environment variable.
5. Double quotes to output in text in PowerShell script file
To output also text containing 1 or more double quotes by the PowerShell script it is necessary to escape each double quote character with one more " before writing the text string into the script file colortest.ps1.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
set "bcn=Cyan"
set "fcn=White"
set "text="This should not happen^^!""
set "text=!text:"=""!"
set "script=write-host "!text!" -ForegroundColor %fcn% -BackgroundColor %bcn%"
echo !script!>colortest.ps1
echo on
#powershell -executionpolicy remotesigned -file colortest.ps1
#echo off
endlocal
It can be seen here on this example that with delayed expansion already enabled on definition of text with a string containing also an exclamation mark to output as character additionally to the also to output two double quotes that the exclamation mark must be escaped with two caret characters ^^ for assigning the exclamation mark as literal character to environment variable text. That would not be necessary on definition of text before enabling delayed expansion.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "text="This should not happen!""
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "bcn=Cyan"
set "fcn=White"
set "text=!text:"=""!"
set "script=write-host "!text!" -ForegroundColor %fcn% -BackgroundColor %bcn%"
echo !script!>colortest.ps1
endlocal
echo on
#powershell -executionpolicy remotesigned -file colortest.ps1
#echo off
endlocal
For details about the commands SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL see this answer which explains in detail how these two commands work.
This is because, for some random reason which didn't happen to the rest, the call command executed 2 times, the second without setting any %fcn% and %bcn% parameters, when something like call :label was used.
However, this does not happen with goto label.
I am trying to redirect a PS output to a file and process it further.
For this I am using the Printer Port Redirection RedMon which is sending the output to CMD.exe
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
As arguments I expected that something like the following should work, but it does not. "%1" contains the user input for filename.
/c >"%1"
or
/c 1>"%1"
or
/c |"%1"
or
/c > "%1" 2>&1
What almost works if I send the output to a batch file which writes it then to file.
/c WriteOutput.bat "%1"
However, the batch file is somehow altering the file (skipping empty lines, and ignoring exclamation marks and so on...)
If possible I want to avoid a batch file. Is there a way to get it "directly" to a file?
Select "Print to FILE" in the printer options is not an option for me. I want the same end result but via cmd.exe being able to process it further.
Any ideas?
Edit:
Well, that's the batch file I used. It neglects empty lines and space at the beginning.
#echo off
setlocal
set FileName=%1
echo(>%FileName%.ps
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in ('more') do (
echo %%A>>%FileName%.ps
)
Well, so far I still haven't found a direct way to write STDIN via RedMon via CMD.exe to a file. As #aschipfl wrote, all the versions with for /F will skip lines and ignore certain characters.
However, with the following batch script (via RedMon) I end up with a "correct looking" file on disk.
C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c WritePS.bat "%1"
"%1" contains the user input for filename without extension.
The Batch-File WritePS.bat looks as simple as this:
#echo off & setlocal
set FileName=%1.ps
more > "%FileName%"
However,
the resulting Postscript file is different from a file which I "Print to FILE" via the Postscript-Printer setup. I am pretty sure that all the printer settings which I can set are the same in both cases.
If anybody has an idea why there might be a difference, please let me know.
Basically just attempting to create a very basic program that will display the last modified date of a file on our server. Problem is I have no idea how to write it. This is what I attempted
cd \\Server\Folder
msg dir
I also ran into the problem "CMD Does not support UNC Paths as Current Directories" when I tried to change the CD to our servers directory.
What I would like it to do is display in a dialog box the modified date of a "Text.txt" located on our server \\Server\Folder
Any and all help is appreciated
Next .bat script should work:
set "_folder=\\Server\Folder"
set "_filename=Text.txt"
set "_filedatetime=N/A"
pushd %_folder%
for %%G in (%_filename%) do (
rem echo %%~tG %%~fG
if not "%%~tG"=="" set "_filedatetime=%%~tG"
)
popd
echo file %_folder%\%_filename% date and time: %_filedatetime%
Note there is no dialog box in pure cmd command line interpreter, try set /P.
Resources:
SET: Display, set, or remove CMD environment variables
PUSHD, POPD: and UNC Network paths
FOR commands
~ Parameter Extensions
I have the following code in my bat file which saved as MyLM.bat:
#echo off
matlab -automation -r "addpath('C:\Users\mojtaba\BrainModel');AddPathes;MyLM('MT5Test_LM')" > matlab_output.log
exit
In which i simply add the main path and then necessary paths and then i run my function (Which is MyLM). I am running the following code from my matlab command prompt :
!start "MATLAB test" /Min /B MyLM.bat
and it works fine and i am happy! So i can run different instances of matlab separately using different bat files. What will makes me happier is that i can pass my argument (which is 'MT5Test_LM') from matlab command prompt. So i dont need to save different bat files. What i actually need is to have some code like this :
!start "MATLAB test" /Min /B MyLM.bat 'MT5Test_LM'
then i need some piece of codes in my bat file to read this argument and concatenate some strings.
Is there any suggestion?
Have you tried using the input argument of the batch file (%1)?
See, e.g., this manual on batch file input argument.
You might want your bathc file to look like
matlab -r "myLM( %1 )"