How do I run a bat file in the background from another bat file

Question

I have a  setup  script which I run in the morning which starts all the programs that I need  Now some of those need additional setup of the environment  so I need to wrap them in small BAT scripts   How do I run such a script on Windows XP in the background   CALL env-script bat runs it synchronously  i e  the setup script can continue only after the command in the env-script has terminated   START B env-script bat runs another instance of CMD exe in the same command prompt  leaving it in a really messy state  I see the output of the nested CMD exe  keyboard is dead for a while  script is not executed    START B CMD env-script bat yields the same result  None of the flags in CMD seem to match my bill

User · Answer

This works on my Windows nbsp XP Home installation  the Unix way   call notepad exe  amp

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Actually is quite easy with this option at the end      c  start BATCH bat -WindowStyle Hidden

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Actually  the following works fine for me and creates new windows  test cmd   echo off start test2 cmd start test3 cmd echo Foo pause  test2 cmd  echo off echo Test 2 pause exit  test3 cmd  echo off echo Test 3 pause exit  Combine that with parameters to start  such as  min  as Moshe pointed out if you don t want the new windows to spawn in front of you

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Create a new C  Windows application and call this method from main   public static void RunBatchFile string filename        Process process   new Process         process StartInfo FileName   filename          suppress output  command window still gets created      process StartInfo Arguments     gt  NULL        process Start        process WaitForExit

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Since START is the only way to execute something in the background from a CMD script  I would recommend you keep using it  Instead of the  B modifier  try  MIN so the newly created window won t bother you  Also  you can set the priority to something lower with  LOW or  BELOWNORMAL  which should improve your system responsiveness

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Two years old  but for completeness     Standard  inline approach   i e  behaviour you d get when using  amp  in Linux   START  B CMD  C CALL  foo bat   args          Notes  1  CALL is paired with the  bat file because that where it usually goes     i e  This is just an extension to the CMD  C CALL  foo bat  form to make it asynchronous   Usually  it s required to correctly get exit codes  but that s a non-issue here    2  Double quotes around the  bat file is only needed if the name contains spaces    The name could be a path in which case there s more likelihood of that      If you don t want the output   START  B CMD  C CALL  foo bat   args         gt NUL 2 gt  amp 1   If you want the bat to be run on an independent console   i e  another window   START CMD  C CALL  foo bat   args          If you want the other window to hang around afterwards   START CMD  K CALL  foo bat   args          Note  This is actually poor form unless you have users that specifically want to use the opened window as a normal console   If you just want the window to stick around in order to see the output  it s better off putting a PAUSE at the end of the bat file  Or even yet  add   amp  PAUSE after the command line   START CMD  C CALL  foo bat   args          amp  PAUSE

User · Answer

Other than foreground background term  Another way to hide running window is via vbscript  if is is still available in your system   DIM objShell set objShell wscript createObject  wscript shell   iReturn objShell Run  yourcommand exe   0  TRUE    name it as sth vbs and call it from bat  put in sheduled task  etc  PersonallyI ll disable vbs with no haste at any Windows system I manage

[windows-xp] How do I run a bat file in the background from another bat file?

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