how to hide cmd shell window?

on start up i have a bat file run routine things for me

however, the black console pops up and stays open until everything is finished....

anyway to hide it and run it in background ? so it shouldn't appear minimized or system tray.

You can use a VBS script to achieve this. Either write all your code as VBS, or call your batch file like this:

'launch.vbs
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "mybatch.bat", 0
WshShell = Null

Create a shortcut to the file. On the new shortcut: Right click -> Properties. Go to the Shortcut tab, and choose "Run: Minimized." (This is assuming you're on WinXP).

This link should help you as helped me. I used the second solution that uses a program named quiet.exe

To use, just call quiet.exe program params_if_has.

My use example: quiet.exe php script.php

You can't really do that but if you are using the scheduler to run the batch file you can select "don't interact with desktop" when creating the job.

I once had a little program which could hide windows based on their title. So my startup batch first set a unique title with title and then called the other program to hide the window with said title. Worked fine but involves a little programming.

If you don't want to go that way, then you should use the Task Scheduler as tr4656 noted.

Try renaming your file to .cmd instead of .bat.

Or, if you're executing a .exe try:

start "" "C:\Program Files\SomeProg\someprog.exe"

Note: When using "start" you have to be at a command prompt.