Solved: Start and stop one app from another.

Muhammad Khan

4/14/2008

String is not a problem.. you can do it using Shell command

Shell "c:\myApp2.exe"

the problem comes when you want to close it... for that you need to use Windows API...

Basicfarmer

4/14/2008

ASKER

Thanks for the quick response and great answer...

Mike Tomlinson

4/14/2008

Here is a simple example of how to kill something started with Shell():

Option Explicit
 
Private Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = &H1F0FFF
Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long
Private Declare Sub TerminateProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal uExitCode As Long)
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim taskID As Double
    taskID = Shell("notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus)
 
    ' ... code ...
 
    KillShell taskID
End Sub
 
Private Sub KillShell(ByVal taskID As Double)
    On Error Resume Next
 
    Dim hProcess As Long
    Dim lExitCode As Long
    Dim lRet As Long
 
    If taskID <> 0 Then
        hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, 0&, taskID)
        If hProcess <> 0 Then
            GetExitCodeProcess hProcess, lExitCode
            If lExitCode <> 0 Then
                TerminateProcess hProcess, lExitCode
            End If
        End If
    End If
End Sub

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