c# - Is it possible to run a .NET Core console application silently (hide console window)?

Question

I'm trying to automate some tasks for myself and I wrote a few .NET Core 1.0 console applications. One of them is BrowserRouter - a simple application which, based on a URL pattern, decides which browser / browser profile to open when I click on HTTP(S) links.

That works fine, but there is always the console window which appears and immediately disappears.

Is there a way to run the .NET Core console application silently (hiding the console window)?

I know in the full .NET Framework it is possible to change the output type to Windows Application, but that's not available (yet?) for .NET Core.

Answer 1

Update 2018: In .NET Core 3.0+, you will be able to set <OutputType>WinExe</OutputType> inside of the csproj file.

Currently, this is not directly possible out of the box because Windows EXE files contain a flag indicating if it is a "console" or "GUI" application that Windows evaluates even before starting the application. However, this flag can be changed using editbin.exe (ships with Visual?Studio' C++ build tools as far as I know).

Building on this, you could create a self-contained .NET Core application (removing the "type": "platform" from the project.json and adding a runtimes section) so your project output includes an actual .exe file and add a post-build script that invokes editbin.exe /subsystem:windows yourapp.exe.