How to hide a console application in C#

On ProjectProperties set Output Type as Windows Application.

Sounds like you don't want a console application, but a windows GUI application that doesn't open a (visible) window.

Create a console application "MyAppProxy" with following code, and put MyAppProxy in start up dir,

public static void main(string[] args)
{
   Process p = new Process("MyApp");
   ProcessStartUpInfo pinfo = new ProcessStartUpInfo();
   p.StartupInfo = pinfo;
   pinfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
   pinfo.ShellExecute = false;

   p.RaiseEvents = true;

   AutoResetEvent wait = new AutoResetEvent(false);
   p.ProcessExit += (s,e)=>{ wait.Set(); };

   p.Start();
   wait.WaitOne();
}

You may need to fix certain items here as I didnt check correctness of the code, it may not compile because some property names may be different, but hope you get the idea.

The best way is to start the process without window.

        Process p = new Process();
        p.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
        p.StartInfo.Arguments = "echo Hello!";
        //either..
        p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
        //or..
        p.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
        p.Start();

See other probable solutions -

Toggle Process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden at runtime

and,

Bring another processes Window to foreground when it has ShowInTaskbar = false

To hide a console applicatin in C# when nothing else works use this code:

[DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
public static extern bool FreeConsole();

Place FreeConsole() anywhere in the code, I placed it in the Init(), and the commandline is hidden.

You can Pinvoke a call to FindWindow() to get a handle to your window and then call ShowWindow() to hide the window OR Start your application from another one using ProcessStartInfo.CreateNoWindow

I've got a general solution to share:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace WhateverNamepaceYouAreUsing
{
    class Magician
    {
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

        const int HIDE = 0;
        const int SHOW = 5;

        public static void DisappearConsole()
        {
            ShowWindow(GetConsoleWindow(), HIDE);
        }
    }
}

Just include this class in your project, and call Magician.DisappearConsole();.

A console will flash when you start the program by clicking on it. When executing from the command prompt, the command prompt disappears very shortly after execution.

I do this for a Discord Bot that runs forever in the background of my computer as an invisible process. It was easier than getting TopShelf to work for me. A couple TopShelf tutorials failed me before I wrote this with some help from code I found elsewhere. ;P

I also tried simply changing the settings in Visual Studio > Project > Properties > Application to launch as a Windows Application instead of a Console Application, and something about my project prevented this from hiding my console - perhaps because DSharpPlus demands to launch a console on startup. I don't know. Whatever the reason, this class allows me to easily kill the console after it pops up.

Hope this Magician helps somebody. ;)