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It only means you set a wrong path/name! Fix it!

Well, you already mentioned it... two or three times!
And how could it matter?

Did you test the Igor's sample?

What exactly "doesn't work"?
And how did you try to "setting the service to interact with the desktop"?

Well, the one and only one way to hide the window is to call ShowWindow with SW_HIDE for this window (or its parent)
So if you know the handle of the main window of this external program then you...

No, you need to create a HOOL dll to hook an external applications!

What "c++ console application" are you talking about? What is a problem with a "console application"?

No, I cannot. But you could make a Google search for something like global hook WH_CBT example

Well, the best way would be to change this external program so it will never call ShowWindow with any but SW_SHOWDEFAULT parameter.
It you cannot change this program then you could try with (WH_CBT)...

Good! So now you know a possible reason for the external program to be displayd despite of your startup parameter set to SW_HIDE! :thumb:

Where you want to.
But you must be sure (you have to test it!) that this second call is really executed.

No. Your initial code with CreateProcess is "almost" correct. You should only change it to
info.dwFlags = STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
info.wShowWindow = SW_HIDE;

You have to change your test program...

Well, there is onlz one call of ShowWindow in your example.
But according to MSDN article STARTUPINFO:

I have a question: who and how is considered to close/exit this program? After you have called CloseHandle there is (almost) no more possible to close the program...
So how long are you going to...

Could you show the code snippet with ShowWindow?
Did you test whether this ShowWindow is called?

It occusionally "works" with notepad just because notepade does not internally call ShowWindow. (Well, it is IMHO, so, please test if calling ShowWindow(SW_SHOW) would cause the "doesn't work"...

Then perform a test: create a very small GUI program (SDI), ensure it calls somewhere the ShowWindow with SW_SHOW or SW_MAXIMIXE or SW_RESTORE parameter, and test your CreateProcess with this program!

Does your program call ShowWindow API? With what argument(s)?

Define "it doesn't work". :cool: