JAR with no Command Prompt involved

[Bert Maki]

I'm trying to run my Java program without any Command Prompt windows involved, just like when you run Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. You double-click an icon and the GUI appears, and you never see a Command Prompt.

My program uses Swing for the user interface, and I have it compiled in a JAR file. I have a batch file MyApp.bat with one line:

javaw.exe -jar MyApp.jar

When I double-click MyApp.bat, a Command Prompt appears just before my GUI does. It stays in the background and then disappears after I close the GUI. My program works fine, but seeing that stupid Command Prompt is really annoying.

Is there a better way to accomplish what I want without using a full-blown "installer" program? I thought using javaw instead of java to execute the JAR was supposed to keep the Command Prompt from appearing. Maybe the problem is with my batch file? I know I can use

@echo off

as the first line in MyApp.bat to keep lines of output from appearing in the Command Prompt window, but is there something else I can enter to prevent the Command Prompt window itself from appearing?

[Tony Morris]

Associated the jar file type with javaw.exe.
Of course your batch file will open a command line.

[Edwin Dalorzo]

If you are referring to Windows, as it seems, you probably would consider to use Launch4J as nice alternative.

Launch4j is a cross-platform tool for wrapping Java applications distributed as jars in lightweight Windows native executables.
[...]
This program is free software licensed under the GPL license [...]

[Bert Maki]

Thanks Tony, associating the .jar file type with javaw.exe gave me the exact behavior I was hoping for!

The Launch4J program is more than I need for right now, but it looks really cool. I think I'll be giving it a try in the near future - if for no other reason initially than to learn how to use it - because it appears to add quite a bit of value and functionality. Thanks for the tip Edwin!