How can I set a flag in win32 PE that controls the display of the console window

Question

I have an executable that is part of a batch process. This single executable opens a console window, which is annoying because it is useless to the end user and removes the focus from their active task.

We can not compile a new version from this EXE from the source (easy). Is there an easy way to circle this parameter in PE?

Answer 1

Found.

editbin.exe /subsystem:windows foo.exe

editbin.exe is part of MSVC

Answer 2

I wrote it with python in 15 minutes based on the PE specification http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463119.aspx

, Windows EXE Windows ( ), , .

Python:

import sys
import struct

if len(sys.argv) < 4:
    print "Change Exe Run Mode Application by [e-mail]\nNot sufficient parametrs. 'exe_src_name.exe' 'exe_dest_name.exe' 'to_console' or 'to_windows'"
    sys.exit(-1)

source = open(sys.argv[1], "rb")
dest   = open(sys.argv[2], "w+b")
dest.write(source.read())

dest.seek(0x3c)
(PeHeaderOffset,)=struct.unpack("H", dest.read(2))

dest.seek(PeHeaderOffset)
(PeSignature,)=struct.unpack("I", dest.read(4))
if PeSignature != 0x4550:
    print "Error in Find PE header"

dest.seek(PeHeaderOffset + 0x5C)

if sys.argv[3].strip() == "to_console":
    # console mode
    dest.write(struct.pack("H", 0x03))
elif sys.argv[3].strip() == "to_windows":
    # window mode
    dest.write(struct.pack("H", 0x02))
else:
    print "Wrong Format: '" + sys.argv[3] + "'"

source.close()
dest.close()

print "Completed succesfully.."