Timers in c++

I'll look into it
Thanks for the quick response

no problem and to execute your external application you'll probably want to use one of the _spawn functions.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vclib/html/_crt__spawn.2c_._wspawn_functions.asp

If your console prog already is running an infinite loop you may count the time by calls to GetTickCount() (assuming you are on a Windows platform, though there are equal functions on other platforms also).

void main()
{

    long    l1 = GetTickCount();
    bool    chkTimer = true;
    while (true)
    {
         // check timer
        if (chkTimer)
        {
             l2 = GetTickCount();
             if (l2 - l1 >= 25*60*1000)
             {
                   ShellExecute(...);
                   chkTimer = false;
             }  
        }

        // do other stuff

        ...

       Sleep(10);  // gives other applications cpu time
    }
}

On NT, 2k and XP systems you also could use CreateWaitableTimer function. That gives a handle where you can wait for using WaitForSingleObject  or WaitForMultipleObjects.

Regards, Alex

Sorry for the delay in reply,
I solved the problem myself in the end by just reverting back to my original GUI program and using TTimer. However, I didn't find many of the above comments helpful (i also already knew about the spawn functions). Thanks for all your help.