Develop Reference

ProcessStartInfo hangs when UseShellExecute = true

I was running some exe with ProcessStartInfo
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("my.exe");
startInfo.Arguments = "foo.txt bar.txt";
startInfo.WorkingDirectory = path;
Process process = Process.Start(startInfo);
process.WaitForExit();
It was working fine on my PC, but when I move the code to another PC, the same code keep hanging.
After some trying, I was able to fix it by setting UseShellExecute to false (and use absolute path for the exe filename).
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(Path.Combine(Server.MapPath(#"~\mypath"),"my.exe"));
startInfo.Arguments = "foo.txt bar.txt";
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process process = Process.Start(startInfo);
process.WaitForExit();
The question is why? Why does using shell hang the process? What is the difference between using or not using shell to execute?
Thanks for the help!

Why does Kaspersky anti-virus prevent my program from capturing the output of its child process?

I have a C# program that launches a child process and captures its output in a string. This works on most Windows machines (Windows 7 and newer), but when Kaspersky anti-virus is present, Process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd() returns null. There is no error code or exception. The child process is a trusted console application. The process takes 5 or 6 seconds to run.
The code for launching the child process is as follows:
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo();
psi.UseShellExecute = false;
psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
psi.RedirectStandardError = true;
psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
psi.FileName = "icao.exe";
psi.Arguments = im_path + "image.jpg";
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo = psi;
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
string error = p.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
MessageBox.Show(error);
p.WaitForExit();
int exitCode = p.ExitCode;
MessageBox.Show(exitCode+"");
Why does output end up being null when Kaspersky is present?

My guess is that Kaspersky's heuristics are seeing that your program wants to execute another exe. Because nothing is telling Kaspersky that this is ok, it flags your program as possible malware, because it wants to interface with other programs that are developed by other companies. If you are able to I would try white listing your program with Kaspersky and see if that solves your issue.

Why is auditpol not applying the local policy settings from C#?

I'm setting local auditing policies from a C# .NET program that reads settings from a file then uses Process.Start() with 'cmd' to execute the commands. This way has worked in the past for everything that I've needed it to do (including this exact situation), but recently it's just started to mysteriously fail to set the policies.
Here's the code: (command is of the form "auditpol /set /subcategory:"blah" /success:enable")
ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + command);
procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
procStartInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
procStartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
string error = proc.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
In debug in VS2013 it's applying the policies just fine and even on the same computer in the full on .exe it's applying just fine, but when it gets transferred to another computer it will not set the policies from the auditpol command. Anyone have any ideas what could be happening?

Working with the command prompt in C#

I am working on a project of remotely receiving commands from a server, but I am facing a problem when working with the command prompt locally. Once I get it working locally, then I will move to remote communication.
Problem:
I have to completely hide the console, and client must not see any response when the client is working with the command line but it will show a console for a instance and then hide it.
I had to use c# to send a command to cmd.exe and receive the result back in C#. I have done it in one way by setting the StandardOutput... and input to true.
The commands are not working. For example, D: should change the directory to D and it does, but after that, if we use dir to see the directories in D, it does not show the appropriate directories.
Here is my code:
First Method
Process process = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/C " + textBoxInputCommand.Text + " >> " + " system";
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
Second Method
ProcessStartInfo procStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd", "/c " + textBoxInputCommand.Text);
procStartInfo.WorkingDirectory = #"c:\";
procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
procStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
Process proc = new Process();
proc.StartInfo = procStartInfo;
proc.Start();
string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
richTextBoxCommandOutput.Text += result;
I want the program to run as administrator because the exe it generates does not run commands when it runs from the C drive.

Try not to run the commands by passing them to cmd instead write the commands passed by the client to a.bat file execute the .bat. file from your program this will probably hide your command prompt window.
You can also use process.OutputDataRecieved event handler to do anything with the output.
If you want to execute command using administrator rights you can use runascommand. It is equivalent to the sudo command in Linux. Here is a piece of code may be it will help you
var process = new Process();
var startinfo = new ProcessStartInfo(#"c:\users\Shashwat\Desktop\test.bat");
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
process.StartInfo = startinfo;
process.OutputDataRecieved += DoSomething;
process.Start();
process.BeginOutputReadLine();
process.WaitForExit();
//Event Handler
public void DoSomething(object sener, DataReceivedEventArgs args)
{
//Do something
}
Hope it helps you.

You could hide command prompt window by adding this line of code:
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
or do not create it at all
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
Here can be found a few awarding solutions:
Run Command Prompt Commands

Executing command-prompt command in C#

:)
I have a software which can be executed via command line, and now I want it to be executed directly from my C# app. Sadly, there is no error but I still can't do it. :(
The path of .exe file of the software is C:\program files\mysoftware.exe
The command I would like to input is
cd c:\program files\mysoftwareFolder
enter
mysoftware.exe d:\myfolder\file1.xxx d:\myfolder\file2.xxx -mycommand
enter
exit
The commands above work so well in the actual command prompt, but they just don't work from my C# code.
Here is the code:
Process cmdprocess = new Process();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startinfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startinfo.FileName = "cmd";
startinfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startinfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmdprocess.StartInfo = startinfo;
cmdprocess.Start();
System.IO.StreamReader sr = cmdprocess.StandardOutput;
System.IO.StreamWriter sw = cmdprocess.StandardInput;
sw.WriteLine(#"echo on");
sw.WriteLine(#"c:");
sw.WriteLine(#"cd" +#"program files\mysoftwarefolder");
sw.WriteLine(#"mysoftware.exe" +#"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx" +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx" +#"-mycommand");
sw.WriteLine(#"exit");
sw.Close();
sr.Close();
I guess the incorrect parts might be "startinfo.FileName = "cmd";" or the way I typed the command in the code, but I have no idea how to correct them. :(
Please tell me what I did wrong. I appreciate every answer from you! :)))
UPDATE Thank you for your helps! I tried writing the command in batch file, but it only works in debugging mode. (I forgot to tell you guys that I am developing a web service.) When I run my external project which will use this C# service, it won't work. I don't know whether I should add something to my code or not.
help meeeeee pleaseeeee (T___T)

Write these commands in a batch file and execute the batch file.
In batch file:
cd c:\program files\mysoftwareFolder
mysoftware.exe
d:\myfolder\file1.xxx
d:\myfolder\file2.xxx -mycommand
exit
Code:
Process cmdprocess = new Process();
ProcessStartInfo startinfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startinfo.FileName = "path to batchfile.bat";
startinfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startinfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
startinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
startinfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmdprocess.StartInfo = startinfo;
cmdprocess.Start();

Instead of:
startinfo.FileName = "cmd";
Directly use
startinfo.FileName = #"c:\program files\mysoftwarefolder\mysoftware.exe";
Then pass the arguments to the start info as
startinfo.Arguments = #"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx " +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx " +#"-mycommand";
So the whole code looks like:
Process p = new Process();
p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
p.StartInfo.FileName = #"c:\program files\mysoftwarefolder\mysoftware.exe";
p.StartInfo.Arguments = #"d:\myfolder\file1.xxx " +#"d:\myfolder\file2.xxx " +#"-mycommand";
p.Start();
string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
p.WaitForExit();
If you need to see output from your program you can simply use the output string.

2 things: I think you have spacing problems and you're not reading the result of these commands. cmd is probably telling you ..."is not recognized as an internal or external command"
If you look at what you're throwing at cmd, it will be:
echo on
c:
cdprogram files\mysoftware folder
mysoftware.exed:\myfolder\file1.xxx
That won't work when you try it in cmd. CMD is almost certainly kicking back error messages at you, but you're never reading from sr so you'll never know it.
I'd add in some spaces and include all the paths in quotes internally like so:
sw.WriteLine(#"echo on");
sw.WriteLine(#"c:");
sw.WriteLine("cd \"program files\\mysoftwarefolder\"");
sw.WriteLine("mysoftware.exe \"d:\\myfolder\\file1.xxx\" d:\\myfolder\\file2.xxx\" -mycommand");
sw.WriteLine(#"exit");