asked on 1/28/2009

use of shell command in Visual Basic Express 2008

I am writing a program in Visual Basic Express 2008. I need to call an executable using a button click. I have two buttons in the program. . Somehow the executable does not seem to run. If I run the executable from the command line it always works and throws up a menu in the screen. When called from my visual basic program nothing shows up the screen. What am I doing wrong? The second button which calls calc.exe always works.The code is shown below. If I replace the content of the shell for button1_click with the pathname for calc.exe, then that runs.

Public Class mgmt_suite
 
    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MgmtSuite.Click
        Shell("C:\L1Applications\bin\L1-IMS", AppWinStyle.MaximizedFocus)
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub Global_traveler_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Global_Traveler.Click
        Shell("C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe")
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub mgmt_suite_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 
    End Sub
End Class

Open in new window

Software Microsoft Development Visual Basic.NET

Last Comment

Mike Tomlinson

1/29/2009

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

buzzle74

1/29/2009

THIS SOLUTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.

View this solution by signing up for a free trial.

Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.

See Pricing Options

Start Free Trial

kumarbabu

1/29/2009

ASKER

Hi buzzle74,

Thanks for your solution. It was very helpful. However, for some reason the solution proposed works when I call other executables. However, it does not seem to work for the particular executable "L1Applications\bin\L1-IMS"; This application runs by itself without any problem but I can't seem to use VB to call it. Any ideas on why this particular application is unresponsive to a call from VB?

Thanks,

kumarbabu

1/29/2009

ASKER

By setting
System.Environment.CurrentDirectory = "C:\L1Applications\bin\" before the Process.Start line the software was able to be launched. The problem is now solved.

Mike Tomlinson

1/29/2009

You need to set the WorkingDirectory first:

Dim p As New Process
p.StartInfo.FileName = "C:\L1Applications\bin\L1-IMS"
p.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = "C:\L1Applications\bin\"
p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized
p.Start()