Win32 programming hiding console window

If you're writing a console program and you want to disconnect your program from the console it started with, then call FreeConsole. Ultimately, you probably won't be satisfied with what that function really does, but that's the literal answer to the question you asked.

If you're writing a program that you never want to have a console in the first place, then configure your project so that it is not a console program. "Consoleness" is a property of the EXE file. The OS reads that setting and decides whether to allocate a console for your program before any of your code ever runs, so you can't control it within the program. Sometimes a non-console program is called a "GUI program," so you might look for a choice between "console" and "GUI" in the configuration options of your development environment. Setting it to GUI doesn't require that you have any user interface at all, though. The setting merely controls whether your program starts with a console.

If you're trying to write a program that can sometimes have a console and sometimes not, then please see an earlier question, Can one executable be both a console and GUI app?

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
void Stealth()
{
 HWND Stealth;
 AllocConsole();
 Stealth = FindWindowA("ConsoleWindowClass", NULL);
 ShowWindow(Stealth,0);
}

int main()
{
  cout<<"this sentence is visible\n";
  Stealth(); //to hide console window
  cout<<"this sentence is not visible\n";
  system("PAUSE");
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

I used to use ShowWindow (GetConsoleWindow(), SW_HIDE); in such case, however if you no need console, so don't create console app project.

Assuming you're on windows, configure your linker to make a gui-program, not a console program.

• VS: Look in Linker ptions on project properties
• LINK: add /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS
• MinGW: -mwindows