Getting subprocesses to be hidden on Windows

[Roger Upole]

geoffbache wrote:
> On 28 Aug, 18:18, Larry Bates <larry.ba... at websafe.com> wrote:
>> geoffbache wrote:
>> > Hi,
>>
>> > As part of my efforts to write a test tool that copes with GUIs
>> > nicely, I'm trying to establish how I can start a GUI process on
>> > Windows that will not bring up the window. So I try to hide the window
>> > as follows:
>>
>> > info = subprocess.STARTUPINFO()
>> > info.dwFlags |= subprocess.STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW
>> > info.wShowWindow = subprocess.SW_HIDE
>>
>> > proc = subprocess.Popen(..., startupinfo=info)
>>
>> > This works, in a way, but doesn't work recursively. I.e. if the
>> > started process itself starts a window, that second window will not be
>> > hidden. This even applies to dialog boxes within the application. So
>> > instead of a lot of windows popping up I now get a lot of disembodied
>> > dialogs appearing, which is a slight improvement but not much.
>>
>> > Also, certain processes (e.g. tkdiff) seem to ignore the directive to
>> > be hidden altogether.
>>
>> > This is dead easy on UNIX with virtual displays like Xvfb. Can someone
>> > shed any light if it's possible on Windows from python?
>>
>> > Regards,
>> > Geoff Bache
>>
>> While I'm not entirely sure I understand what you want, I think you can
>> accomplish it by using win32CreateProcess instead of subprocess.  You can run
>> the application minimized or perhaps in a REALLY small window.  If you have
>> modal dialog boxes, I don't think you can do anything as they don't run in the
>> parent windows frame but rather outside (I could be wrong about this).
>>
>> -Larry
>
> Hi Larry,
>
> I don't know if that would help. I've tried running minimized from the
> command line as
> suggested by Mike and that has the same issue (child windows and
> dialogs don't get minimized)
> So the question is moving away from how to technically achieve this in
> Python to whether
> Windows even supports it...
>
> Geoff

You might want to look into running the tests on a separate desktop (or possibly
even a new window station).

              Roger