CreateProcess() fails with an access violation

Question

My aim is to execute an external executable in my program. First, I used system() function, but I don't want the console to be seen to the user. So, I searched a bit, and found CreateProcess() function. However, when I try to pass a parameter to it, I don't know why, it fails. I took this code from MSDN, and changed a bit:

#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>

void _tmain( int argc, TCHAR *argv[] )
{
    STARTUPINFO si;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

    ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) );
    si.cb = sizeof(si);
    ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) );
    /*
    if( argc != 2 )
    {
        printf("Usage: %s [cmdline]\n", argv[0]);
        return;
    }
    */
    // Start the child process. 
    if( !CreateProcess( NULL,   // No module name (use command line)
        L"c:\\users\\e\\desktop\\mspaint.exe",        // Command line
        NULL,           // Process handle not inheritable
        NULL,           // Thread handle not inheritable
        FALSE,          // Set handle inheritance to FALSE
        0,              // No creation flags
        NULL,           // Use parent's environment block
        NULL,           // Use parent's starting directory 
        &si,            // Pointer to STARTUPINFO structure
        &pi )           // Pointer to PROCESS_INFORMATION structure
    ) 
    {
        printf( "CreateProcess failed (%d).\n", GetLastError() );
        return;
    }

    // Wait until child process exits.
    WaitForSingleObject( pi.hProcess, INFINITE );

    // Close process and thread handles. 
    CloseHandle( pi.hProcess );
    CloseHandle( pi.hThread );
}

However, this code crated access violation somehow. Can I execute mspaint without showing user the console?

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

The second argument is a LPTSTR, namely a pointer to a non-const char array. The docs specifically say:

this parameter cannot be a pointer to read-only memory (such as a const variable or a literal string)

The reason passing a string literal is a problem:

The system adds a terminating null character to the command-line string to separate the file name from the arguments. This divides the original string into two strings for internal processing.

Which means in your case, it tries to modify read-only memory, hence the crash.