Run command prompt in background silently (without opening a window)

If you like programming shell scripts for Windows, you might want to run your command prompt scripts in the background silently without actually opening the command prompt windows. This easily possible with a few lines of vbscript.

Using VBScript To Run CMD Script Silently

Here’s a little snippet of one of my command prompt scripts:


rundll32.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL %SystemRoot%\system32\desk.cpl desk,@Themes /Action:OpenTheme /file:"C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\landscapes.theme"


Let’s say you don’t want Windows 7 to open a command prompt window and run it silently, you can write a vbscript for that:

1. Open a notepad editor

2. Insert the following code:


Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
cmds=WshShell.RUN("E:\scripts/themescript.bat", 0, True)
Set WshShell = Nothing


The 0 makes the shell script run silently.

3. Save your notepad file. When you save it add the extension .vbs and select All files from the dropdown as seen below:

4. You can now schedule that cmd script and it will not open a command prompt window

This is very handy if you don’t want to be annoyed with dozens of command prompt windows when your scheduled tasks are running.

You might also want to know how to open the command prompt in Windows 8