How can one specify the window title for a console application started with System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()?

Question

I am starting a new instance of a console application from my .NET code using the Process.Start() method. I was wondering if I can specify the title of the console window hosting the spawned process. Could not find anything suitable in ProcessStartInfo.

As a last resort I can P/Invoke to talk to Win32 API directly, but I'd rather not.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Umberto

Answer 1

I know it sounds like you know the P/Invoke way of doing this, but for anyone else this is how you do it

[DllImport("User32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetWindowText(IntPtr hwnd, string title);


SetWindowText(myProcess.MainWindowHandle, "my new title");

Farmhand

Per #17847918, it looks like a Thread.Sleep() is needed - on my machine, a sleep of 1000ms does the trick. Not sure how to make it more robust (i.e. not rely on an arbitrary delay). – Pablopabon

Answer 2

The easiest way I can think of is to create a batch file that sets the title (using the title command) and then executes the application. Then Start the .bat file instead.

Spadix

Thanks, interesting. Does it mean that there is no way in .NET? – Umberto

Answer 3

Inside the e.g. script of powershell I do use:

# Set the Window Title as a reference
[System.Console]::Title = "Main title of the window"

Got it from here, maybe useful: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rob/archive/2012/08/21/setting-the-title-of-the-command-prompt-window.aspx

Progressionist