Console applications and batch scripts are regularly run at Windows startup and in schedule. The main inconvenience of this is that every application creates a new console window which flickers on the screen. Hidden Start (or Hstart) is a small startup manager that allows console applications and batch files to be started without any windows in the background.

Hstart is very small (~12 Kb), but it allows you to:
- start multiple applications in the specified order synchronously;
- start console applications without any windows in the background;
- set the working directory and priority class of the created processes;
- handle UAC privilege elevation under Windows Vista;
- show simple messages after command execution.