C++ disallow command prompt from displaying

Question

Is there any thing I can do to make sure that the shell/command prompt does not show up when I run my C++ program, it is meant to be a background program? While it isn't a huge deal if it displays because it quickly closes, I would prefer it doesn't display at all. Program will run on windows xp/vista/7 OS

Answer 1

Sounds to me like you want to create a Windows service, not a command line utility. This is why services exist. Long running background tasks that require no user interaction. A simple example here.

Answer 2

Configure your compiler or linker to mark your program as a GUI application.

Windows recognizes two main types of programs: GUI and console. If the EXE header is marked as a console program, then the OS creates a console window prior to executing it. Otherwise, it doesn't. This isn't something you can control at run time; you need to set it at link time. (You can call ShowWindow(GetConsoelWindow(), SW_HIDE) to try to control it at run time, but that doesn't prevent the window from flickering on and then off again. Plus, if your program is sharing the console with another program, like cmd.exe, then you'll have just hidden the user's command-prompt window!) Even if your program doesn't have any actual GUI, that's still the mode you need to avoid having a console window created for you.

If you're starting a new project in Visual Studio, select the "Win32 Console Application" option. If you already have a project, then in your project's configuration properties, find the "Subsystem" setting of the "Linker/System" section and set it to "Console." That makes the linker use the /subsystem:console option. If you're using Mingw, use the -Wl,--subsystem,windows option.