Launching an app

Take a look at this:
Run Notepad

uses ShellApi;
...
ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'c:\Windows\notepad.exe', nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Open SomeText.txt with Notepad


ShellExecute(Handle,'open', 'c:\windows\notepad.exe','c:\SomeText.txt', nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Display the contents of the "DelphiDownload" folder


ShellExecute(Handle,'open', 'c:\DelphiDownload', nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Execute a file according to its extension.


ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'c:\MyDocuments\Letter.doc',nil,nil,SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Here's how to Find an application associated with an extension
Open web site or a *.htm file with the default web explorer


ShellExecute(Handle, 'open', 'http://delphi.about.com',nil,nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Here's how to Open a Web Browser in a new window
Send an e-mail with the subject and the message body


var em_subject, em_body, em_mail : string;
begin
  em_subject := 'This is the subject line';
  em_body := 'Message body text goes here';

  em_mail := 'mailto:delphi.guide@about.com?subject=' +
    em_subject + '&body=' + em_body ;

  ShellExecute(Handle,'open',
    PChar(em_mail), nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ;
end; Here's how to send an email with the attachment
Execute a program and wait until it has finished. The following example uses the ShellExecuteEx API function.


// Execute the Windows Calculator and pop up
// a message when the Calc is terminated.
uses ShellApi;
...
var
   SEInfo: TShellExecuteInfo;
   ExitCode: DWORD;
   ExecuteFile, ParamString, StartInString: string;
begin
   ExecuteFile:='c:\Windows\Calc.exe';

   FillChar(SEInfo, SizeOf(SEInfo), 0) ;
   SEInfo.cbSize := SizeOf(TShellExecuteInfo) ;
   with SEInfo do begin
     fMask := SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS;
     Wnd := Application.Handle;
     lpFile := PChar(ExecuteFile) ;
{
ParamString can contain the
application parameters.
}
// lpParameters := PChar(ParamString) ;
{
StartInString specifies the
name of the working directory.
If ommited, the current directory is used.
}
// lpDirectory := PChar(StartInString) ;
     nShow := SW_SHOWNORMAL;
   end;
   if ShellExecuteEx(@SEInfo) then begin
     repeat
       Application.ProcessMessages;
       GetExitCodeProcess(SEInfo.hProcess, ExitCode) ;
     until (ExitCode <> STILL_ACTIVE) or
Application.Terminated;
     ShowMessage('Calculator terminated') ;
   end
   else ShowMessage('Error starting Calc!') ;
end;