Running a console app silently (suppress the console window from appearing)

Question

I have looked at these posts addressing similar issues: From Python and Extract Silently and Command Line Option

None addresses my specific issue.

I would like to call 7za.exe (and possibly other console applications, that by default result in the shell command window) from within an application written in ANSI C without the shell prompt window popping up for each call. From within the Windows command shell, I can append > nul to the end of a command line call of 7za, and it suppresses everything, as shown here:

However, I need to call it in a loop (several hundred times), from a Windows application, resulting in a constant flicker as Windows launches a shell then kills it when the command is complete.

So far I have tried appending > nul , just as I illustrated in the command prompt image above, then using the system() command, as well as a modified system command which launches exe in another process:

sprintf(command, "7za.exe x -y -o%s %s > nul", filepathUnComp, filepath); 
system(command);  

or:

SystemX(command);  

Where SystemX is defined:

int SystemX(command)
{
    STARTUPINFO sj;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pj;
    int exit;

    ZeroMemory( &sj, sizeof(sj) );
    sj.cb = sizeof(sj);
    ZeroMemory( &pj, sizeof(pj) );

    if(CreateProcess(NULL, cmd, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 0, NULL, NULL, &sj, &pj) == 0)
    {
        //AED_GetErrorMessage(AEDNV_FAILED_CREATE_PROCESS,cmd);
        return -1;
    }

    // Wait until child processes exit.
    WaitForSingleObject( pj.hProcess, IGNORE ); //ingnore signal

    //Get exit code
    GetExitCodeProcess(pj.hProcess, (LPDWORD)(&exit));

    return exit;
}  

Both of these methods result in the shell prompt window flicker.

Is there a way to run 7za.exe within an application completely silent, that is, without instantiating the shell command window flicker?

If this is not possible using 7za, I am also open to hearing about other approaches.

Answer 1

This may be useful to other Windows programmers who need to suppress the shell prompt from appearing when running an executable program that by default launches a shell: (thanks to @Marc B and @ Joachim Pileborg )

Change the original line in the OP SystemX code from:

 if(CreateProcess(NULL, cmd, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 0, NULL, NULL, &sj, &pj) == 0);  

to:

 if(CreateProcess(NULL, cmd, NULL, NULL, FALSE, CREATE_NO_WINDOW, NULL, NULL, &sj, &pj) == 0);