# Suppress Mathematica Kernel taskbar tab when using .NETLink

Is there a possibility to suppress the Mathematica Kernel taskbar tab when accessing it through .NETLink on Windows?

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Welcome. There is no need to sign your messages; that is what the user block below each post and your profile are for. – Mr.Wizard Feb 7 '12 at 12:45
This is not really .NETLink related: the question is if there's a command line option that'll prevent the kernel from showing itself in the taskbar (BTW I think this behaviour is deliberate, ad not an oversight, though I can completely understand why someone would want to hide it). – Szabolcs Feb 7 '12 at 13:05

The command line option to call the kernel with to suppress the taskbar button is -noicon. You need to pass this flag to MathKernel.exe when launching it.

Here's a demonstration from within Mathematica:

kernel = LinkLaunch[First[\$CommandLine] <> " -mathlink -noicon"]


This will launch a new kernel and connect to it. On Windows, the new kernel will not show on the taskbar.

I do not remember where I learned about this command line flag. It took me quite a few minutes to be able to recall it at all.

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Thanks for your answer. Unfortunately the taskbar button sill appears. I've got the following code: Dim _arguments As String = "-linkmode launch -linkname ""C:/Program Files/Mathematica/8.0/MathKernel.exe"" -noicon" _iKernelLink = Wolfram.NETLink.MathLinkFactory.CreateKernelLink(_arguments) Am I doing something wrong? – alxppp Feb 7 '12 at 13:39
@alxppp I don't know C#, can you first try the Mathematica code I posted? If that one works, we can go from there. – Szabolcs Feb 7 '12 at 13:43
Thank you very much for your reply. Your Mathematica code works, no Kernel button appears in the taskbar after execution. – alxppp Feb 7 '12 at 15:01
@alxppp I don't know Visual Basic or any .NET, but my guess is that you need to launch the kernel using Wolfram.NETLink.MathLinkFactory.CreateKernelLink("-noicon") – Szabolcs Feb 7 '12 at 15:08
Thank you. This is what the code from my first comment does. I just put the arguments of the CreateKernelLink function in a separate string variable ("_arguments"). – alxppp Feb 7 '12 at 15:18