Windows run command in background

asked Jan 9, 2014 at 21:08

I believe the command you are looking for is start /b *command*

For unix, nohup represents ‘no hangup’, which is slightly different than a background job (which would be *command* &. I believe that the above command should be similar to a background job for windows.

answered Jan 9, 2014 at 21:13

I’m assuming what you want to do is run a command without an interface (possibly automatically?). On windows there are a number of options for what you are looking for:

• Best: write your program as a windows service. These will start when no one logs into the server. They let you select the user account (which can be different than your own) and they will restart if they fail. These run all the time so you can automate tasks at specific times or on a regular schedule from within them. For more information on how to write a windows service you can read a tutorial online such as (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zt39148a(v=vs.110).aspx).

• Better: Start the command and hide the window. Assuming the command is a DOS command you can use a VB or C# script for this. See here for more information. An example is:

  Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
  objShell.Run("C:\yourbatch.bat"), 0, True
  

  You are still going to have to start the command manually or write a task to start the command. This is one of the biggest down falls of this strategy.

• Worst: Start the command using the startup folder. This runs when a user logs into the computer

Hope that helps some!

answered Oct 23, 2019 at 20:52

Nicholas DiPiazzaNicholas DiPiazza

10.1k11 gold badges84 silver badges154 bronze badges

If you take 5 minutes to download visual studio and make a Console Application for this, your problem is solved.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;

namespace BgRunner
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Starting: " + String.Join(" ", args));
            String arguments = String.Join(" ", args.Skip(1).ToArray());
            String command = args[0];

            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(command);
            p.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
            p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(command);
            p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            p.Start();
        }
    }
}

Examples of usage:

BgRunner.exe php/php-cgi -b 9999
BgRunner.exe redis/redis-server --port 3000
BgRunner.exe nginx/nginx

answered Feb 14, 2021 at 3:19

It’s unimaginable that after a decade that Windows still doesn’t have a decent way to run commands in background.

start /B command is the most given answer, but the command will be closed when the terminal closed.

Now, Windows 10 have a built-in(you have to install it mannually though) ssh server. you can run

ssh username@localhost "my_backgroud_command --params"

and then CTRL C, close the terminal, the command will continue to run in background.

This is the most decent way I have found so far.
Although not decent enough, because you have to install and configure the ssh server first.

answered Jan 28, 2022 at 4:44

asked Jan 9, 2014 at 21:08

I believe the command you are looking for is start /b *command*

For unix, nohup represents ‘no hangup’, which is slightly different than a background job (which would be *command* &. I believe that the above command should be similar to a background job for windows.

answered Jan 9, 2014 at 21:13

I’m assuming what you want to do is run a command without an interface (possibly automatically?). On windows there are a number of options for what you are looking for:

• Best: write your program as a windows service. These will start when no one logs into the server. They let you select the user account (which can be different than your own) and they will restart if they fail. These run all the time so you can automate tasks at specific times or on a regular schedule from within them. For more information on how to write a windows service you can read a tutorial online such as (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zt39148a(v=vs.110).aspx).

• Better: Start the command and hide the window. Assuming the command is a DOS command you can use a VB or C# script for this. See here for more information. An example is:

  Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
  objShell.Run("C:\yourbatch.bat"), 0, True
  

  You are still going to have to start the command manually or write a task to start the command. This is one of the biggest down falls of this strategy.

• Worst: Start the command using the startup folder. This runs when a user logs into the computer

Hope that helps some!

answered Oct 23, 2019 at 20:52

Nicholas DiPiazzaNicholas DiPiazza

10.1k11 gold badges84 silver badges154 bronze badges

If you take 5 minutes to download visual studio and make a Console Application for this, your problem is solved.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;

namespace BgRunner
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Starting: " + String.Join(" ", args));
            String arguments = String.Join(" ", args.Skip(1).ToArray());
            String command = args[0];

            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(command);
            p.StartInfo.Arguments = arguments;
            p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(command);
            p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
            p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            p.Start();
        }
    }
}

Examples of usage:

BgRunner.exe php/php-cgi -b 9999
BgRunner.exe redis/redis-server --port 3000
BgRunner.exe nginx/nginx

answered Feb 14, 2021 at 3:19

It’s unimaginable that after a decade that Windows still doesn’t have a decent way to run commands in background.

start /B command is the most given answer, but the command will be closed when the terminal closed.

Now, Windows 10 have a built-in(you have to install it mannually though) ssh server. you can run

ssh username@localhost "my_backgroud_command --params"

and then CTRL C, close the terminal, the command will continue to run in background.

This is the most decent way I have found so far.
Although not decent enough, because you have to install and configure the ssh server first.

answered Jan 28, 2022 at 4:44

asked Oct 12, 2010 at 6:09

Your question is pretty vague, but there is a post on ServerFault which may contain the information you need. The answer there describes how to run a batch file window hidden:

You could run it silently using a Windows Script file instead. The Run
Method allows you running a script in invisible mode. Create a .vbs
file like this one

Dim WinScriptHost
Set WinScriptHost = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WinScriptHost.Run Chr(34) & "C:\Scheduled Jobs\mybat.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WinScriptHost = Nothing

and schedule it. The second argument in this example sets the window
style. 0 means «hide the window.»

This is a little late but I just ran across this question while searching for the answer myself and I found this:

START /B program

which, on Windows, is the closest to the Linux command:

program &

From the console HELP system:

C:\>HELP START

Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command.

START ["title"] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
      [/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
      [/NODE <NUMA node>] [/AFFINITY <hex affinity mask>] [/WAIT] [/B]
      [command/program] [parameters]

    "title"     Title to display in window title bar.
    path        Starting directory.
    B           Start application without creating a new window. The
                application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application
                enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt
                the application.

One problem I saw with it is that you have more than one program writing to the console window, it gets a little confusing and jumbled.

To make it not interact with the user, you can redirect the output to a file:

START /B program > somefile.txt

answered May 3, 2013 at 14:28

I suspect you mean: Run something in the background and get the command line back immediately with the launched program continuing.

START "" program

Which is the Unix equivalent of

program &

You can use this (commented!) PowerShell script:

# Create the .NET objects
$psi = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$newproc = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
# Basic stuff, process name and arguments
$psi.FileName = $args[0]
$psi.Arguments = $args[1]
# Hide any window it might try to create
$psi.CreateNoWindow = $true
$psi.WindowStyle = 'Hidden'
# Set up and start the process
$newproc.StartInfo = $psi
$newproc.Start()
# Return the process object to the caller
$newproc

Save it as a .ps1 file. After enabling script execution (see Enabling Scripts in the PowerShell tag wiki), you can pass it one or two strings: the name of the executable and optionally the arguments line. For example:

.\hideproc.ps1 'sc' 'stop SomeService'

I confirm that this works on Windows 10.

Suyash JainSuyash Jain

2863 silver badges9 bronze badges

A related answer, with 2 examples:

1. Below opens calc.exe:

call START /B «my calc» «calc.exe»

1. Sometimes foreground is not desireable, then you run minimized as below:

call start /min «n» «notepad.exe»

call START /MIN «my mongod» «%ProgramFiles%\MongoDB\Server\3.4\bin\mongod.exe»

Hope that helps.

answered Sep 30, 2011 at 14:00

I did this in a batch file:
by starting the apps and sending them to the background. Not exact to the spec, but it worked and I could see them start.

rem   Work Start Batch Job from Desktop
rem   Launchs All Work Apps
@echo off
start "Start OneDrive" "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\OneDrive.exe"
start  "Start Google Sync" "C:\Program Files\Google\Drive\GoogleDriveSync.exe"
start skype
start "Start Teams" "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Teams\current\Teams.exe"
start Slack
start Zoom
sleep 10
taskkill /IM "explorer.exe"
taskkill /IM "teams.exe"
taskkill /IM "skype.exe"
taskkill /IM "slack.exe"
taskkill /IM "zoom.exe"
taskkill /IM "cmd.exe"
@echo on

killing explorer kills all explorer windows, I run this batch file after start up, so killing explorer is no issue for me.
You can seemingly have multiple explorer processes and kill them individually but I could not get it to work.
killing cmd.exe is to close the CMD window which starts because of the bad apps erroring.

answered Apr 10, 2021 at 10:22

just came across this thread
windows 7 , using power shell, runs executable’s in the background , exact same as unix filename &

example: start -NoNewWindow filename

help start

NAME
Start-Process

SYNTAX
Start-Process [-FilePath] [[-ArgumentList] ] [-Credential ] [-WorkingDirectory
] [-LoadUserProfile] [-NoNewWindow] [-PassThru] [-RedirectStandardError ] [-RedirectStandardInput
] [-RedirectStandardOutput ] [-Wait] [-WindowStyle {Normal | Hidden |
Minimized | Maximized}] [-UseNewEnvironment] []

Start-Process [-FilePath] <string> [[-ArgumentList] <string[]>] [-WorkingDirectory <string>] [-PassThru] [-Verb
<string>] [-Wait] [-WindowStyle <ProcessWindowStyle> {Normal | Hidden | Minimized | Maximized}]
[<CommonParameters>]

ALIASES
saps
start

answered Jul 13, 2015 at 23:29