How To Determine Whether an Application is Console or GUI

ID: Q90493 

4.00    | 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00
WINDOWS | WINDOWS NT kbprg kbhowto

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

In order to determine whether an application is console or GUI, you must parse the EXEheader. The header contains a field called 'Subsystem'. This field determines both the subsystem the application is to run under and the type of interface it requires. The values consist of: 

   IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_NATIVE               1
   IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI          2
   IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI          3
   IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_OS2_CUI              5
   IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_POSIX_CUI            7

MORE INFORMATION

Sample Code

#include <windows.h>
#include <winnt.h>
VOID main(int, char **); DWORD AbsoluteSeek(HANDLE, DWORD); VOID ReadBytes(HANDLE, LPVOID, DWORD); VOID WriteBytes(HANDLE, LPVOID, DWORD); VOID CopySection(HANDLE, HANDLE, DWORD); 

#define XFER_BUFFER_SIZE 2048
VOID main(int argc, char *argv[]) { 
    HANDLE hImage;

    DWORD  bytes;
    DWORD  iSection;
    DWORD  SectionOffset;
    DWORD  CoffHeaderOffset;
    DWORD  MoreDosHeader[16];

    ULONG  ntSignature;

    IMAGE_DOS_HEADER      image_dos_header;
    IMAGE_FILE_HEADER     image_file_header;
    IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER image_optional_header;
    IMAGE_SECTION_HEADER  image_section_header;

    if (argc != 2)
    {
        printf("USAGE: %s program_file_name\n", argv[1]);
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     *  Open the reference file.
     */ 
    hImage = CreateFile(argv[1],
                        GENERIC_READ,
                        FILE_SHARE_READ,
                        NULL,
                        OPEN_EXISTING,
                        FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,
                        NULL);

    if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hImage)
    {
        printf("Could not open %s, error %lu\n", argv[1], GetLastError());
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     *  Read the MS-DOS image header.
     */ 
    ReadBytes(hImage,
              &image_dos_header,
              sizeof(IMAGE_DOS_HEADER));

    if (IMAGE_DOS_SIGNATURE != image_dos_header.e_magic)
    {
        printf("Sorry, I do not understand this file.\n");
        exit(1);
    }

    /*
     *  Read more MS-DOS header.       */ 
    ReadBytes(hImage,
              MoreDosHeader,
              sizeof(MoreDosHeader));

    /*
     *  Get actual COFF header.
     */ 
    CoffHeaderOffset = AbsoluteSeek(hImage, image_dos_header.e_lfanew) +
                       sizeof(ULONG);

    ReadBytes (hImage, &ntSignature, sizeof(ULONG));

    if (IMAGE_NT_SIGNATURE != ntSignature)
    {
     printf("Missing NT signature. Unknown file type.\n");
     exit(1);
    }

    SectionOffset = CoffHeaderOffset + IMAGE_SIZEOF_FILE_HEADER +
                    IMAGE_SIZEOF_NT_OPTIONAL_HEADER;

    ReadBytes(hImage,
              &image_file_header,
              IMAGE_SIZEOF_FILE_HEADER);

    /*
     *  Read optional header.
     */ 
    ReadBytes(hImage,
              &image_optional_header,
              IMAGE_SIZEOF_NT_OPTIONAL_HEADER);

    switch (image_optional_header.Subsystem)
    {
    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_UNKNOWN:
        printf("Type is unknown.\n");
        break;

    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_NATIVE:
        printf("Type is native.\n");
        break;

    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_GUI:
        printf("Type is Windows GUI.\n");
        break;

    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_WINDOWS_CUI:
        printf("Type is Windows CUI.\n");
        break;

    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_OS2_CUI:
        printf("Type is OS/2 CUI.\n");
        break;

    case IMAGE_SUBSYSTEM_POSIX_CUI:
        printf("Type is POSIX CUI.\n");
        break;

    default:
        printf("Unknown type %u.\n", image_optional_header.Subsystem);
        break;
    }
}

DWORD AbsoluteSeek(HANDLE hFile, 

             DWORD  offset)
{
    DWORD newOffset;

    if ((newOffset = SetFilePointer(hFile,
                                    offset,
                                    NULL,
                                    FILE_BEGIN)) == 0xFFFFFFFF)
    {
        printf("SetFilePointer failed, error %lu.\n", GetLastError());
        exit(1);
    }

    return newOffset;
}

VOID ReadBytes(HANDLE hFile, 

          LPVOID buffer,
          DWORD  size)
{
    DWORD bytes;

    if (!ReadFile(hFile,
                  buffer,
                  size,
                  &bytes,
                  NULL))
    {
        printf("ReadFile failed, error %lu.\n", GetLastError());
        exit(1);
    }
    else if (size != bytes)
    {
        printf("Read the wrong number of bytes, expected %lu, got %lu.\n",
               size, bytes);
        exit(1);
    }
}

KBCategory: kbprg kbhowto KBSubcategory: BseMisc Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00 95 

Keywords          : kbnokeyword kbKernBase kbGrpKernBase 
Version           : 4.00    | 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00
Platform          : NT WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: December 18, 1996