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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-17T01:24:42+00:00

What exactly happens when a .NET console application starts? In the process explorer, when

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What exactly happens when a .NET console application starts?

In the process explorer, when starting the exe I am wondering why I cannot see a “cmd.exe” process as a parent process for the console application. What exactly is displayed then?

Is there a way to replace the “default” console window by another one? I guess this would mean modifying the “console subsystem”.

Creating a GUI application instead of a console application is not an option as I do not have the source of all possible tools.

Observation:

  • With Mono and Linux, I have no issue at all regarding this and my test app!
  • The font used has an influence, I cannot find a font that fits for everything (even with asia pack installed)
  • Tweaking (Changing font, sizes, …) in registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console is having an impact and can be defined per executable.
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    In the process explorer, when starting the exe I am wondering why I cannot see a “cmd.exe” process as a parent process for the console application. What exactly is displayed then?

    You don’t need cmd.exe to have a console window, any executable with the correct header flag will cause Windows to create a console for it, or connect to the console window of its parent process if its parent has one.

    Is there a way to replace the “default” console window by another one?

    Only by:

    • Changing the compiler flags for your application to be a GUI application and then using the Win32 API AllocConsole to create a console. (Included for completeness, won’t apply here if you cannot rebuild the executable).1
    • Creating an intermediate program that is not a console application (so not associated with its parent console) which then launches your program.
    • Creating an intermediate program that is a console application (so not associated with its parent console) which then launches your program with the CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE flag passed to CreateProcess.2

    1 Editbin.exe can change the flag (editbin /subsystem:WINDOWS), but the application would then need to call AllocConsole.

    2 It is not clear if the CreateNoWindow property of ProcessStartInfo serves the same function for Process.Start in .NET. If it does this intermediary could be written in .NET, but a native solution would be considerably lighter weight—in such a short program having to load .NET will significantly slow things down.

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