- 1 year ago
What's different in the process environment when toggling ProcessStartInfo.CreateNoWindow?
When toggling the ProcessStartInfo.CreateNoWindow
property in the ProcessStartInfo
class in .NET, it affects the environment and behavior of the process created by Process.Start()
in the following ways:
Window visibility:
- When
CreateNoWindow
isfalse
(the default), the launched process typically creates a new window to display its output and interact with the user, if applicable. - When
CreateNoWindow
is set totrue
, the launched process does not create a new window. The process runs in the background without a visible user interface.
- When
Input and output handling:
- When
CreateNoWindow
isfalse
, the launched process has access to the standard input (stdin), standard output (stdout), and standard error (stderr) streams. These streams can be redirected, read, or written by the calling process. - When
CreateNoWindow
is set totrue
, the launched process can still write to the standard output and standard error streams, but these streams are not visible in a separate window. However, the calling process can still redirect or capture these output streams as needed.
- When
Interaction with the desktop:
- When
CreateNoWindow
isfalse
, the launched process is associated with the desktop session and can interact with the user interface of the desktop, if applicable. - When
CreateNoWindow
is set totrue
, the launched process is typically not associated with the desktop session and cannot directly interact with the user interface. However, it can still perform background tasks, execute commands, and produce output.
- When
These differences in behavior can be useful when running processes in the background, executing commands silently, or when the process does not require user interaction or a visible window.
It's important to note that the specific behavior and impact of CreateNoWindow
can vary depending on the operating system, the type of process being launched, and the specific configuration of the process. It's recommended to refer to the documentation and behavior of the specific process or application being launched to understand its expected behavior when CreateNoWindow
is set to true
.