Hide Console Window in C# Console Application [duplicate]

Question

The thing is, I really don't want the console window to show up, but the solution should be running. My point here is, I want to keep the application running in the background, without any window coming up.

How can I do that?

Noway

Can you give us a little more information regarding what the application should do? It sounds like it should be a service or windows application? With a little knowledge about it's purpose, we'd be able to help a lot more and suggest the best way to solve this. – Pardoner

Its keylogger application. I used windows service but it can not get key states in windows service – Noway

Does this answer your question? Show/Hide the console window of a C# console application – Roundsman

Answer 1

Change the output type from Console Application to Windows Application. This can be done under Project -> Properties -> Application in Visual Studio:

Cervix

Console window flashes and goes back. How do i keep the application running with no window at all? – Noway

@SOF User: How do you start the application? By double-clicking in Explorer or from the Start Menu? – Cervix

i have also put Console.ReadLine(); – Noway

Remove the Console.ReadLine. It doesn't make any sense if you don't have a console window. – Cervix

@DirkVollmar thank you for your answer, it helped me:) One question - how to close such an app? – Unspotted

@KarolŻurowski: The idea here is that you would use this for apps that either also come with some form of UI (e.g. an icon in the sytem tray) or apps that do a certain task and then exit automatically when done. If you have neither, the app will run in the background until logoff/shutdown or until it is explicitly killed, e.g. using Task Manager. – Cervix

@DirkVollmar Thank you. My application is a self hosted WCF service. When the user launches another program it starts and now I have to figure out how to terminate it when I this user will close the first program. Nevertheless thanks for the reply – Unspotted

@KarolŻurowski: Sounds like you are after hosting your service using WAS. Did you consider that option? – Cervix

@DirkVollmar Actually I did, but I thought that it runs only on windows server whereas I need my service to run on win 8/10 as well. But it turns out that is can be deployed on win 8/10 so I will definitely give it a closer look, thanks :) – Unspotted

Answer 2

Change your application type to a windows application. Your code will still run, but it will have no console window, nor standard windows window unless you create one.

Carner

Console window flashes and goes back. How do i keep the application running with no window at all? – Noway

You make sure it doesn't terminate. There really is not much else to say without more information. What does the program do? Does it run something in a loop? – Resurrect

Answer 3

Instead of Console.Readline/key you can use new ManualResetEvent(false).WaitOne() at last. This works well for me.

Rozier

Answer 4

You can use user32.dll to achieve this without vscode

    class start
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
        static void Main()
        {
            IntPtr h = Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle;
            ShowWindow(h, 0);
            // Do the rest

This still flashes the screen but works good enough

the usings are

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Diagnostics;

Note im still new to csharp and not perfect so feel free to comment and corrections!

Litchi

While the other solution is more popular, I think this solution is underrated! Particularly because I can conditionally show/hide the console window depending on the logic, e.g. by adding compiler directives like "#if DEBUG" – Menander

btw, "Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle;" didn't work for me and a solution from https://mcmap.net/q/182536/-hide-the-console-window-from-a-console-application-duplicate introduces another Windows API call that does the job. (.NET 6 on Windows 10) – Menander

Answer 5

Maybe you want to try creating a Windows Service application. It will be running in the background, without any UI.

Fritillary

Windows Service can not get Key pressed events – Noway

Services are severely limited depending on your application, as of Windows Vista they are forced in to Session 0, and thus can not perform anything in other sessions such as show popup messages. – Dykstra

@Dykstra "cannot perform anything in other sessions" is not entirely true. Here's a code project for a Service that opens an admin command prompt on the logged-in user's desktop. codeproject.com/Articles/35773/… – Staghound

Answer 6

Change the output type from Console Application to Windows Application,

And Instead of Console.Readline/key you can use new ManualResetEvent(false).WaitOne() at the end to keep the app running.

Tudela

Answer 7

To compile your application without a console window

csc.exe /target:winexe *.cs

Loring