Call Command Prompt For Different Purposes In Different Ways

1. Auto Close
   A command prompt window will open and then close automatically after command execution. Please verify the output inside output.txt. This is the most common way of calling a command prompt; e.g., executing your bat files and closing the window once finished. You can notice that the code belongs to this button click and the below section is contributing to this auto close behavior. The flag /C is important here.
   1. StartProcess("/C DIR >> output.txt");
      
   2. 
      
   3. using (Process process = Process.Start(startInfo))
   4. {
   5. process.WaitForExit();
   6. process.Close();
   7. }
2. Display Window
   A command window will open accepting your input. You need to give the input and then close it by yourself. You need to call the command prompt like this when calling any third-party command prompt tools and they are expecting some inputs during the process; i.e., curl.exe. You can notice the code belongs to this button click and the below section is contributing to this display window behavior. The flag /K is important here.
   1. StartProcess("/K SET /P name=Please enter your name:");
   2. using (Process process = Process.Start(startInfo))
   3. {
   4. process.WaitForExit();
   5. process.Close();
   6. }
3. No Window
   It's like the first case, but no window would be opened and everything happens from the background. Please verify the output inside output.txt. You can notice the below code belongs to this button click and the below section is contributing to this no window behavior.
   1. ProcessStartInfo processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
   2. {
   3. WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden
   4. };
4. Multiple Commands
   You call the command prompt but execute more than one command using &&. Please verify the output inside output.txt. You can notice the below code belongs to this button click and the below section has been used to pass multiple dos commands. The takeaway is the && operator.
   1. StartProcess("/C tasklist >> output.txt && dir >> output.txt");
5. Custom Output
   You interfere with the output stream of the command prompt and add/remove what the output should be; e.g., if you run a lengthy batch file and try to track any single batch command's fails with its full details, then you need to do this. Here you can inject your own text to the output stream. Please verify the output inside the Visual Studio output window. You can notice the below code belongs to this button click and the below section is contributing to taking control of the command prompt output.
   1. using (var process = Process.Start(processStartInfo))
   2. {
   3. process.OutputDataReceived += OutputDataReceived;
   4. process.ErrorDataReceived += ErrorDataReceived;
   5. process.BeginErrorReadLine();
   6. process.BeginOutputReadLine();
   7. process.WaitForExit();
   8. process.Close();
   9. }
   11. private void ErrorDataReceived(object sender, DataReceivedEventArgs e)
   12. {
   13. Debug.Flush();
   14. Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("This is custom information {0}", e.Data));
   16. }
   18. private void OutputDataReceived(object sender, DataReceivedEventArgs e)
   19. {
   20. Debug.Flush();
   21. Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("This is system information {0}", e.Data));
   22. }

Summary