How to get window title in windows from shell

I can set title via windows shell using command title some stringbut how can I get the title of some process?

I tried command tasklist /v, but my title is very, very long, that's why I receive only partial title. Also I was thinking about wmic utility, but can't find desired flag.

3 Answers

The script below shows that tasklist /v /FO:CSV does not truncate long window titles and independently solves two tasks:

• Part 1 displays all useful window titles along with image names and PIDs in csv format; findstr is used to narrow down output to really useful titles.
• Part 2 displays PID and title of the command prompt window where the script was executed from (my own cmd).

Script:

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
rem Part 1: ALL USEFUL WINDOW TITLES
echo(
set "_myExcludes=^\"conhost ^\"dwm ^\"nvxdsync ^\"nvvsvc ^\"dllhost ^\"taskhostex"
for /F "tokens=1,2,8,* delims=," %%G in (' tasklist /V /fo:csv ^| findstr /V "%_myExcludes%" ') do ( if NOT "%%~J"=="N/A" echo %%G,%%~H,%%J
)
rem Part 2: MY OWN cmd WINDOW TITLE
echo(
set "_myTitleTail= - %~0"
for /F "tokens=1,2,8,* delims=," %%G in (' tasklist /V /fo:csv ^| findstr /I /C:"%_myTitleTail%" ') do ( set "_myTitleBatch=%%~J" set "_myCmdPIDno=%%~H"
)
call set "_myCmdTitle=%%_myTitleBatch:%_myTitleTail%=%%"
echo _myCmdPIDno=%_myCmdPIDno%
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion echo _myCmdTitle=!_myCmdTitle!
ENDLOCAL

Output:

==> TITLE ...but my title is very, very long, that's why I receive only partial title. Also
I was thinking about wmic utility, but can't find desired flag!!!
==> .\SU\378790.bat
"Image Name",PID,"Window Title"
"VDeck.exe",4032,"VIA HD Audio Deck"
"chrome.exe",5760,"How to get window title in windows from shell - Super User - Google Chrom
e"
"powershell_ise.exe",5568,"Windows PowerShell ISE"
"cmd.exe",4980,"...but my title is very, very long, that's why I receive only partial title. Also I was thinking about wmic utility, but can't find desired flag!!! - .\SU\378790.bat"
"PSPad.exe",5108,"378790.bat"
"cmd.exe",3888,"d:\bat"
"cmd.exe",5648,"Administrator: Command Prompt"
_myCmdPIDno=4980
_myCmdTitle=...but my title is very, very long, that's why I receive only partial title. Als
o I was thinking about wmic utility, but can't find desired flag!!!
==>

Resources (required reading):

• (command reference) An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line
• (helpful particularities) Windows CMD Shell Command Line Syntax
• (%~G etc. special page) Command Line arguments (Parameters)
• (special page) EnableDelayedExpansion
• (SET %variable:StrToFind=NewStr%) Variable Edit/Replace

AutoHotkey can help you achieve this. Let's write a script that outputs the process and titles of all open windows to stdout:

WinGet, windows, list
Loop, %windows%
{ id := windows%A_Index% WinGet, process, ProcessName, ahk_id %id% WinGetTitle, title, ahk_id %id% FileAppend, %process% %title%`n, *
}
ExitApp

Compile the script to get a portable .exe.

Now, we can run the following from the Windows command line:

MyScript.exe | more

Example:

Nowadays shell is Powershell:

Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.mainWindowTitle} | Format-Table Id, Name, mainWindowtitle -AutoSize

and for title of selected proces:

(Get-Process -id 8748 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).MainWindowTitle