winapi: CreateProcess but hide the process' window?

I am using CreateProcess to create a cmd.exe process that is passed a parameter that it executes and quits, this makes command prompt flash up on the screen.

I tried to avoid this by setting STARTUPINFO struct wShowWindow to SW_HIDE but this parameter seems to affect the calling window, not the window for the process that gets executed.

Is there anyway that you can use createprocess to launch a program that is hidden from view?

Also what is the proper winapi standard way to get enviroment variables?

From stackoverflow

• set the STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW in dwFlags

  by sharptooth

• The following link here describes how to create the window silently:

  DWORD RunSilent(char* strFunct, char* strstrParams)
  {
      STARTUPINFO StartupInfo;
      PROCESS_INFORMATION ProcessInfo;
      char Args[4096];
      char *pEnvCMD = NULL;
      char *pDefaultCMD = "CMD.EXE";
      ULONG rc;
  
      memset(&StartupInfo, 0, sizeof(StartupInfo));
      StartupInfo.cb = sizeof(STARTUPINFO);
      StartupInfo.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
      StartupInfo.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;
  
      Args[0] = 0;
  
      pEnvCMD = getenv("COMSPEC");
  
      if(pEnvCMD){
  
       strcpy(Args, pEnvCMD);
      }
      else{
       strcpy(Args, pDefaultCMD);
      }
  
      // "/c" option - Do the command then terminate the command window
      strcat(Args, " /c "); 
      //the application you would like to run from the command window
      strcat(Args, strFunct);  
      strcat(Args, " "); 
      //the parameters passed to the application being run from the command window.
      strcat(Args, strstrParams); 
  
      if (!CreateProcess( NULL, Args, NULL, NULL, FALSE,
       CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE, 
       NULL, 
       NULL,
       &StartupInfo,
       &ProcessInfo))
      {
       return GetLastError();  
      }
  
      WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInfo.hProcess, INFINITE);
      if(!GetExitCodeProcess(ProcessInfo.hProcess, &rc))
       rc = 0;
  
      CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
      CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);
  
      return rc;
  
  }
  

  I think getenv and setenv are all okay? I am not sure what you are asking about in that respect.

• This might be an overkill for your needs, but you can hook the ShowWindow API and never show any windows for that process

• If its just a console app you can also use the CREATE_NO_WINDOW flag as part of the CreateProcess call itself, e.g.

  CreateProcess(NULL, lpszCommandLine, NULL, NULL, FALSE, 
                CREATE_NO_WINDOW, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi);
  

  Also, see this page for information about environment variables.