What is the differerence between qemu-system-armw.exe and qemu-system-arm.exe?

Question

What is the differerence between qemu-system-armw.exe and qemu-system-arm.exe? I could not find it anywhere.

Answer 1

Executable with w does not open console window, while executable without w does. Similar to javaw and java, pythonw and python, ...

Answer 2

The difference is a single "w". Seriously, I found by trial and error that the file with the "w" is for Windows. The other is for Linux.

Answer 3

Based on FAQ by Stefan Weil (Provider of QEMU Windows Installer):

qemu-system-armw.exe: is a Windows GUI application
qemu-system-arm.exe: is a Windows console application

Both only differ in the internal file header - the code is identical.
If you run the console application, you will usually get two windows: a console window and the QEMU application window.

My Summary:
If you run the 'w' version you will get QEMU application window only.
If you run the version without 'w' you will get QEMU application window and console window, where the console window is the parent process.

Since QEMU common configuration way is using command line arguments, its more useful to start by opening console window and pass the needed parameters to the version without 'w', then use the finalized parameters in shortcut of 'w' version.

References:
[Qemu-devel] [PATCH for-2.11] Fix build of console and GUI executables for Windows
Makefile.target: search for QEMU_PROGW
W32 build instructions

Side note: The same thing applies for: qemu-system-x86_64.exe vs qemu-system-x86_64w.exe