How to prevent the command prompt from closing after execution?

Question

My problem is that in Windows, there are command line windows that close immediately after execution. To solve this, I want the default behavior to be that the window is kept open. Normally, this behavior can be avoided with three methods that come to my mind:

1. Putting a pause line after batch programs to prompt the user to press a key before exiting
2. Running these batch files or other command line manipulating tools (even service starting, restarting, etc. with net start xy or anything similar) within cmd.exe(Start - Run - cmd.exe)
3. Running these programs with cmd /k like this: cmd /k myprogram.bat

But there are some other cases in which the user:

1. Runs the program the first time and doesn't know that the given program will run in Command Prompt (Windows Command Processor) e.g. when running a shortcut from Start menu (or from somewhere else), OR
2. Finds it a little bit uncomfortable to run cmd.exe all the time and doesn't have the time/opportunity to rewrite the code of these commands everywhere to put a pause after them or avoid exiting explicitly.

I've read an article about changing default behavior of cmd.exe when opening it explicitly, with creating an AutoRun entry and manipulating its content in these locations:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

(The AutoRun items are _String values_...)

I put cmd /d /k as a value of it to give it a try, but this didn't change the behaviour of the stuffs mentioned above at all... It just changed the behaviour of the command line window when opening it explicitly (Start-Run-cmd.exe).

So how does it work? Can you give me any ideas to solve this problem?

Answer 1

I have a solution which can only apply on .cmd and .bat files:

Open regedit and go to each one of:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\open\command]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\shell\open\command] 

Now change the "Default key value" to cmd.exe /k "%1" %*. Now, every batch script window will stay open after its execution.

Note that this is like using cmd.exe /c cmd.exe /k program.bat, meaning that another CMD instance will be launched into the parent one. I couldn't find how to overwrite the first /c argument.

You can also do so with [exefile], but now it'll show an empty console box if the executable has a GUI.

Answer 2

Quote Microsoft:

A console is closed when the last process attached to it terminates or calls FreeConsole.

In other words, Win32 console window will always be closed when the last program running inside it exits, and you cannot change this.

---

(For 16-bit MS-DOS programs, Windows offers an option "Close on exit" in the properties dialog, but this is not an exception to the behavior above: it's the NTVDM process that holds the window open. Also, this option is again per-program.)

Answer 3

Just open a command prompt at the location of your batch file, and manually key in the name of your batch file to run it within that window.

1.Navigate to the folder where your executable resides
2.Shift-Right click and select "Command Window from here"
3.type in the name of the executable and hit enter
4.The process should run, but the window should stay open

Answer 4

cmd.exe /k will give you trouble with some batch. If the batch exit 1 (without /B) your console will be closed. A trick is to use:

cmd.exe /k cmd /c ...

To use this by default for all batch files, set HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\shell\open\command\(default) and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\open\command\(default) to "%windir%\system32\cmd.exe" /k "%windir%\system32\cmd" /c "%1" %*.

Answer 5

I just hit on a dumb solution after reading grawity's answer.

My use case was setting up a console environment at work where all the more reasonable solutions are blocked. All I need is to set PATH and configure some doskey aliases and be dumped to the shell.

My solution (just tested on Win7) as add cmd as the last line in the batch file. This runs a nested command prompt that inherits the environment of its parent. That child shell holds the batch process open until you EXIT, at which point the batch has no child processes and also exits.

Answer 6

Rather than using PAUSE (I prefer CHOICE or TIMEOUT to using PAUSE when necessary), you can use the solution here: 886848/how-to-make-windows-batch-file-pause-when-double-clicked.

This way, if you click on a batch file or link (shortcut) from within Windows Explorer, you can have the batch file program pause before it exits so you can view the program output and any error messages.

Using CHOICE, you can program the ability for the user to select a variety of actions to take, and using TIMEOUT can let the window close after a time delay (unattended). If you run the batch file from within a command prompt window, these pauses can be annoying.

The linked solution will let you decide if you want to skip the pauses if the batch file was run from a command prompt window.

You can read more at the provided link, but the basics of it is that it uses the environment variable:

%cmdcmdline%

to determine if the batch file was run from a command window or not.

So, you use it like this:

At the point where the batch file will exit, you add some code like this:

echo %cmdcmdline:"=-% | find /i "cmd /c --%~dpf0%-"
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 goto :EOF
pause
goto :EOF

rem if %errorlevel% EQU 0 batch-file: %~dpf0 was executed from Windows Explorer, ...
rem if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 batch-file: %~dpf0 was executed from within a Command Prompt

Answer 7

Suppose you have two batch files you want to launch in their own instance and keep open if their executable exits. Lets call those two batches A.bat and B.bat.

Now for simplicity you could have a batch file to launch them both, let's call that launch_both.bat with contents:

start cmd /k "A.bat & cmd /c"
start cmd /k "B.bat & cmd /c"

It might not work as expected if you call exit in one of the two batch files. That will need to be tested.

Answer 8

In response to downgraded PSIXO - "This answer was already covered in the question. – Ro Yo Mi Jan 20 '16 at 5:06" -- NO, it was NOT. The previous answers were: "pause", which did NOT work. PSIXO's answer was: "& pause", which DOES work. Please parse more carefully before downgrading. I ran this from an IDLE prompt, and it worked:

    >>> os.system('dir ^ & pause')
    0
    >>> 

On the other hand:

    >>> os.system('dir ^ pause')
    1
    >>>

Did NOT work (the cmd prompt blipped over, and in fact returned an error (1)). Thanks to PSIXO for the answer that I needed. Henry.

Answer 9

This works for version 5.00 of the Windows Registry Editor.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell\open\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"%1\" %*"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\cmdfile\shell\open\command]
@="cmd.exe /k \"%1\" %*"

Save the above cmds in a file called something like cmdbatfile-open.reg and execute it!

Answer 10

The best way I have found to get around this is to call your batch files from another batch file using start.

so if you normally run a file called go.bat, then you would create a second batch file named something like go2.bat

the contents of go2.bat would just be

start go.bat

the first window closes immediately, but the one running your go.bat remains open

Answer 11

For users using Windows 10, note that none of the answers above currently work for Windows 10.

For Windows 10, if you have access to the script, you need to add the following code at the end:

read

That code will wait for an input before closing.

Answer 12

The OP's question is much more involved than what I needed, and so this answer is for others who come here looking for a simple way to launch a command line program and keep the window open after the command line program exits.

In my case, I wanted to run NodeJS and keep the console window open after NodeJS stopped. Here was my solution:

File: RunNodeJS.bat

@echo off
cd /d c:\
cmd.exe /k cmd /c node

I then created a shortcut to that file on my desktop and double click the shortcut to launch a cmd.exe console that runs the node command and remains open after it (the node command) exits.

I used cmd.exe /k cmd /c node because of another answer given here.