How to Start a Batch Script in Background Mode

It is sometimes useful to run batch scripts in a background mode without showing users the console window with the script's input and output. There are dozens of service scripts that perform some tasks while the user is working with its usual software. But there is a problem to start all these scripts in a background mode.

Let us remind that our award-winning batch files editor Dr.Batcher lets you compile a batch file to Windows executable (EXE). While compiling you can choose option to run the output EXE in invisible mode, i.e. without showing any windows at all. You can also include all necessary external files like 3rd-party console programs or additional scripts. The compiled executable file can be run on any Windows PC or laptop without any additional software installing.
So don't forget that Dr.Batcher lets you compile your batch scripts into Windows executables!

Deleting a Registry Branch at the Given Time

How to delete certain branch in system registry with the help of batch files? The task seems to be quite difficult, but fortunately it is not so hard to implement it. All you actually need to perform this operation is the single line of batch code:

at 00:36 reg delete HKLM\Software\MyPrg /f
Don't forget to change the time and registry branch before using this solution. You can use our award-winning batch file editor to change this small script in according to your needs.

Generating a Sequence of Random Numbers in Batch Files

It's sometimes necessary to generate a sequence of random numbers in a script. In this blog you can find some posts on dealing with random numbers, still this question has never been discussed. Here is an example that shows how to generate and print on the console 99 random numbers. You can use our award-winning batch file editor to redirect the output to a text file and then build a plot in Excel to check these numbers being really random.

@echo off
setlocal
for /l %%i in (0,1,99) do call:rand %%i
for /f "tokens=3 delims=_=" %%i in ('set rand_') do echo %%i
goto:eof
:rand
set rand_%random%%random%=%1
This example can be useful for generating random data for different testing purposes. Hope you'll enjoy it.

Useful Update for the Previous Blog Post

After publishing the previous blog post, we have received a message with the script that lets one avoid printing all the details of pinging many IP addresses and saying which of them are available instead. It is really a handy and useful script and we decided to share it with the readers of our blog.
@echo off
for /l %%i in (1,1,255) do (
ping -n 1 192.168.1.%%i | findstr "TTL=" 1>nul && (
echo 192.168.1.%%i is UP
) || (
echo 192.168.1.%%i is DOWN
)
)

Another Way to Ping Many IPs at Once

We have already discussed how to ping the given list of IP addresses. Now let's look what we can do if this list isn't placed in a text file. As usual, the solution is very simple:
for /L %%i in (1, 1, 255) do ping 192.168.1.%%i
Of course, you have to use your own subnet mask instead of 192.168.1 in the example above. Hope this small script will help you to write your own powerful batch files.

Checking File Size in Batch Files

It's sometimes necessary to check the size of a given file. For example, if you are to delete too big files on your hard drive or split single file into many parts. As usual, batch files are powerful enough to perform such task. The example below shows how to check batch file size (file is called 1.txt) and exit the script if the size is equal to 100 Kb.

for %%a in (1.txt) do if %%~za EQU 102400 goto :EOF
You can use this example in scripts that you create with help of our award-winning program designed to write batch files.

A Small Quiz Script :)

There are lots of useful scripts already published on this blog. You can create even more of them with the help of Dr.Batcher. Now it's time for jokes. Let us introduce a small quiz script that can be useful to check whether you are lucky today. Hope you'll enjoy it:)

@echo off
set i=0
echo Thinking of a number...
:rand
set nmb=%random%
if %nmb% GTR 10 goto rand
if %nmb% EQU 0 goto rand
echo Now you can try 3 times to guess the right one!
:enter
set /p "ent=Your number : "
set /a i=%i%+1
if %ent% EQU %nmb% (
echo You're lucky!
pause
exit
)
if %i% LSS 3 (
goto enter
)
if %i% EQU 3 (
echo Game Over:(
pause
)

Search for Running Process and Start It if It Is not Found

It is quite a common task to start some processes in an automatic way. Of course we usually have no need to run many instances of the application simultaneously, thus we have to check running processes first. Fortunately, batch files are pretty useful in this case and let us solve the problem in a fast and simple way. The solution will look like:

tasklist | findstr /i yourapp.exe 1>nul || start "" "C:\Program Files\Megacorp Inc\yourapp.exe"
You can easily modify this single-line script with the help of our award-winning batch file editor or send your questions and suggestions to us.

Random Numbers Generator

As far as you probably know it is not so hard to generate random numbers with the help of batch files. But if you want to make sure that your number is unique among the given sequence of numbers, the task becomes a little bit more complicated. Here is a quite simple solution that can be modified with the help of our powerful batch files editor:

@echo off
setlocal
:try
set "rand=%random%%random%"
if "%rand:~6%"=="" goto try
1>nul 2>&1 type prevrand.txt | find "%rand:~0,6%"
if not errorlevel 1 goto try
echo %rand:~0,6%>prevrand.txt



As far as you can see, we use a special text file to store all previously used numbers. Of course, it's better to remove it after you have done all the work, whatever you need to do with the generated numbers. Hope you'll find this small random numbers generator useful.