Hiding the command window when using system() on Windows

Rails
1

I’m making a system call in Windows to a program from within my Rails
app., and when it executes, a command window opens up by default for the
duration of the program run.

I’m pretty sure that there’s a way to hide this window when I run the
command.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Alternatively, I tried to set up a shortcut pointing to the executable
that runs with the window minimized but wasn’t able to invoke it
successfully using system(shortcut_name).

Any help is appreciated.

Wes

2

Hi Wes,

I had a similar problem using another language. I don’t think that there
are command line or ruby system() options that let you control this.

My solution was to write a very stupid .Net executable; that just ran
the programme that I needed in a controlled window [:ie background &
minimised]. From .Net its really easy to access the windowing bits of
windows.

Not a very elegant hack, but it worked.

rgds

  • matt.

Wes G. wrote:

I’m making a system call in Windows to a program from within my Rails
app., and when it executes, a command window opens up by default for the
duration of the program run.

I’m pretty sure that there’s a way to hide this window when I run the
command.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Alternatively, I tried to set up a shortcut pointing to the executable
that runs with the window minimized but wasn’t able to invoke it
successfully using system(shortcut_name).

Any help is appreciated.

Wes

3

Matt S. wrote:

My solution was to write a very stupid .Net executable; that just ran
the programme that I needed in a controlled window [:ie background &
minimised]. From .Net its really easy to access the windowing bits of
windows.

Not a very elegant hack, but it worked.

Would you be willing to share this code? I assume it’s in C# and that
would require a C# compiler (which I don’t have).

Thanks,
Wes

4

Wes G. wrote:

I’m making a system call in Windows to a program from within my Rails
app., and when it executes, a command window opens up by default for the
duration of the program run.

I’m pretty sure that there’s a way to hide this window when I run the
command.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Alternatively, I tried to set up a shortcut pointing to the executable
that runs with the window minimized but wasn’t able to invoke it
successfully using system(shortcut_name).

Any help is appreciated.

Wes

Wes-

Using the win32ole library, you could call the Run method of the
Wscript.Shell object…

require ‘win32ole’
cmd = “application.exe”
windowstate = 0 # hidden
wait = 1 # wait for process to complete
WIN32OLE.new(‘Wscript.Shell’).Run(cmd, windowstate , wait)

Mully

5

Would you be willing to share this code? I assume it’s in C# and that
would require a C# compiler (which I don’t have).

Thanks,
Wes

I can get my hands on a C++/C# compiler if need be.

WG

6

David M. wrote:

Using the win32ole library, you could call the Run method of the
Wscript.Shell object…

require ‘win32ole’
cmd = “application.exe”
windowstate = 0 # hidden
wait = 1 # wait for process to complete
WIN32OLE.new(‘Wscript.Shell’).Run(cmd, windowstate , wait)

David,

This:

WIN32OLE.new(‘WScript.Shell’).Run(command_str, 0, 1)

did the trick!!!

Thanks so much for the help.

Wes