Some Windows programs are better run in the background and out of the way. To avoid having to manually minimize a program every time you run it, you can configure the program's shortcut so it will automatically run minimized. Here's how: In our example, we're going to configure TechSmith's Snagit software to automatically start up in a minimized window. Snagit is a screen-capture program that doesn't need to be run in the foreground. Snagit doesn't have a setting to allow it to start it up minimized, so we'll configure Windows 7 to do it for us.
Step 1: Right-click on the shortcut of the program you want to start minimized and select Properties. Screenshot by Ed Rhee Step 2: Click on the drop-down menu under Run. Screenshot by Ed Rhee.
I need to start a program (virtual machine) in the background with a start command on Windows' 7 command line. Normally you would do this like that: start /b cmd yourprogram But I need to pass some arguments and when I so it like this (without /b flag to see the debug information): start C: Users USER>start 'c: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox VBoxHeadless.exe' -startvm 'debian604 64' I get this error message: Windows cannot find '-startvm'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. On the other hand when I do it in the current command line window without the start in the beginning the virtual machine runs normally - but in the foreground.
Any solutions? Start /b ' 'c: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox VBoxHeadless.exe' -startvm 'debian604 64' If you read the parameter list with start /?: START ['title'] [/D path] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE /SHARED] [/LOW /NORMAL /HIGH /REALTIME /ABOVENORMAL /BELOWNORMAL] [/NODE ] [/AFFINITY ] [/WAIT] [/B] [command/program] [parameters] 'title' Title to display in window title bar. Command/program If it is an internal cmd command or a batch file then the command processor is run with the /K switch to cmd.exe. This means that the window will remain after the command has been run. If it is not an internal cmd command or batch file then it is a program and will run as either a windowed application or a console application. Parameters These are the parameters passed to the command/program.
Jan 18, 2007 In Microsoft Windows 95/98 or Windows Me, you can start a Windows-based or MS-DOS-based program from the command prompt in an MS-DOS window. To do so, type. How to Run a Program on Command Prompt. This wikiHow teaches you how to start a program on your Windows computer from within the Command Prompt app. You can only run.
It expects a title enclosed in quotes ( '). Since your program path included quotes, it got interpreted as the title. Adding an explicit title (in this case, empty, ') works.
An alternative method is using the /d switch to specify the path. Specifically: start /b /d 'c: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox ' VBoxHeadless.exe -startvm 'debian604 64' It appears to take the first argument after the /d switch as the path, even if it is quoted, and if the next argument is not quoted then this works. Everything after what is recognised as the command/program is passed as a parameter to that command/program.
Note this will not work if the command/program has spaces in the name, e.g. VBox Headless.exe, since that would require quotes and be recognised as a title. Overall, the first (explicit title) method is probably better.
It was a bad design choice on the part of Microsoft, they really should have added a switch for title rather than Torrents Arctic Monkeys. 'is the first argument enclosed in quotes?'