How to call external application?

'system()' is a les--than-optimal approach towards this problem, since it opens a console window. 'CreateProcess()' is what the Windows SDK offers, and wrapped up, you can use it like

DWORD ExecuteAndWaitForCompletion   (   LPSTR   pszCmd)
{
   STARTUPINFO         si;
   PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

   BOOL                bRes;

   DWORD               dwCode  =   0;

   ZeroMemory  (   &si,    sizeof  (   STARTUPINFO));

   si.cb           =   sizeof  (   STARTUPINFO);
   si.dwFlags      =   STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
   si.wShowWindow  =   SW_SHOWNORMAL;

   bRes    =   CreateProcess   (   NULL,
                                   pszCmd,
                                   NULL,
                                   NULL,
                                   TRUE,
                                   NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
                                   NULL,
                                   NULL,
                                   &si,
                                   &pi
                               );

   while   (   WAIT_OBJECT_0   !=  MsgWaitForMultipleObjects   (   1,
                                                                   &pi.hProcess,
                                                                   FALSE,
                                                                   INFINITE,
                                                                   QS_ALLINPUT
                                                               )
           )
           {
               while   (   PeekMessage (   &msg,   NULL,   0,  0,  PM_REMOVE))
                       {
                           DispatchMessage     (   &msg);
                       }
           }

   GetExitCodeProcess  (   pi.hProcess,    &dwCode);

   CloseHandle (   pi.hProcess);
   CloseHandle (   pi.hThread);

   return  (   dwCode);
}

Use it like

ExecuteAndWaitForCompletion("\"C:\Program Files\Webconference.com\Recorder\Recorder.exe /s\"");

If you don't need to wait for the process to finish, just make that

BOOL Execute   (   LPSTR   pszCmd)
{
   STARTUPINFO         si;
   PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

   BOOL                bRes;

   DWORD               dwCode  =   0;

   ZeroMemory  (   &si,    sizeof  (   STARTUPINFO));

   si.cb           =   sizeof  (   STARTUPINFO);
   si.dwFlags      =   STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW;
   si.wShowWindow  =   SW_SHOWNORMAL;

   bRes    =   CreateProcess   (   NULL,
                                   pszCmd,
                                   NULL,
                                   NULL,
                                   TRUE,
                                   NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS,
                                   NULL,
                                   NULL,
                                   &si,
                                   &pi
                               );


   CloseHandle (   pi.hProcess);
   CloseHandle (   pi.hThread);

   return  bRes;
}

Use it like

Execute("\"C:\Program Files\Webconference.com\Recorder\Recorder.exe /s\"");

BTW, the path names need to be quoted if they contain spaces.

jkr, would frankmorrison leave out the "while   (   WAIT_OBJECT_0   !=  MsgWaitForMultipleObjects   (   1,..." because the VB shell command does not wait for the shelled out command to complete?

Thus the 2nd suggestion without that. And a little correction on the paths when using that, that should have been

ExecuteAndWaitForCompletion("\"C:\\Program Files\\Webconference.com\\Recorder\\Recorder.exe /s\"");

and/or

Execute("\"C:\\Program Files\\Webconference.com\\Recorder\\Recorder.exe /s\"");

U can use this function in Windows Platform SDK

HINSTANCE ShellExecute(
    HWND hwnd,
    LPCTSTR lpVerb,
    LPCTSTR lpFile,
    LPCTSTR lpParameters,
    LPCTSTR lpDirectory,
    INT nShowCmd
);

example:

ShellExecute(NULL,"open" ,"regsvr32.exe", "-?", NULL, 0); //just this line is enough

Regards
Bijo.

Your solution is great, however, I will not know for sure the path of the application.  I do know that it is in the same directory.  So in visual basic I do this:

Shell App.path & "\Recorder.exe /s" , vbNormalFocus

How do I do this in your solution?

Try this:


      TCHAR szAppPath[512];

      TCHAR szFileName[255];
      
      //specifying the file name of the executable which exist in ur application path
      strcpy(szFileName,"ur_exe.exe");
      //wcscpy(szFileName,"race.exe"); //If u r using unicode use this line instead

      //obtainig application path
      GetCurrentDirectory(255, szAppPath);

      //executing the external exe
      ShellExecute(NULL,"open", szFileName, NULL, szAppPath, W_SHOWNORMAL);

Regards
Bijo.