Suppress command window when running console application on Windows

Question

Is there a way to suppress showing the command window when running a console application on Windows XP?

Details: I am calling a (console-based) program from Vim. I would like to avoid the command window being shown every time I do this.

Answer 1

Try start /B <program name> to start the program without a new window.

Answer 2

Did you try shell.vim?

The xolox#shell#execute() function

This function enables other Vim plug-ins to execute external commands in the background (i.e. asynchronously) without opening a command prompt window on Windows.

Answer 3

i can't believe no one has suggested simply using :silent

for example, I have the following in my .vimrc (gvim on Win7)

"open windows explorer to the directory of the current file
:map <leader>ex :silent !Explorer %:p:h<CR>