Question

What I need to do is have a C# 2005 GUI app call a .bat and several VBScript files at user’s request. This is just a stop-gap solution until the end of the holidays and I can write it all in C#. I can get the VBScript files to execute with no problem but I am unable to execute the .bat file. When I ‘click’ in the C# app to execute the .bat file a DOS window opens up and closes very fast and the test .bat file does not execute – ‘Windows does not recognize bat as an internal or external command’ is the error returned in the DOS box. If I simply doubl-click the .bat file or manually run it from the command prompt it does execute. I also need the .bat file to execute silently unless a user interaction is required – this script copies 11k+ files to folders on a networked machine and occasionally Windows ‘forgets’ if the destination is a file or directory and asks for the user to tell it what it is (this is a whole other issue not for discussion here…needless to say I am annoyed by it).

So far in my C# source I have this :

Process scriptProc = new Process();           if (File.Exists('c:\\scripts\\batchfile1.bat'))         {              scriptProc.StartInfo.FileName = @'cscript';             scriptProc.StartInfo.Arguments = ('cmd.exe', '/C C:\\scripts\\batchfile1.bat'); // Wacky psuedo code //             scriptProc.Start();             scriptProc.WaitForExit(1500000);             scriptProc.Close();          }          if (!File.Exists('c:\\scripts\\batchfile1.bat'))         {         } 

I am aware that this code does not work – but it is essentially what I want it to do. What I am looking at is something like this for .bat files. I assume I have to tell the system to use cmd to run the .bat. I am at a loss as to how to do this. I have checked out this site which is for C# 2003. Not much help for me as I am very green with C#.

EDIT: Using Kevin’s post I attempted it again. Same solution script from that post but modified for me since I do not need to redirect:

 System.Diagnostics.Process proc = new System.Diagnostics.Process();             proc.StartInfo.FileName = 'C:\\scripts\\batchfile1.bat';             proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = false;             proc.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = false;             proc.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;             proc.Start();             proc.WaitForExit(); 

Answer 1

Here is what you are looking for:

Service hangs up at WaitForExit after calling batch file

It’s about a question as to why a service can’t execute a file, but it shows all the code necessary to do so.