Need help with VB Script: Trying to see if program is open, if Is - Switch to it. If not, open it

Here is one way to do it, using Microsoft Word's Tasks collection as a sort of makeshift Task Manager.  

Paste the script below into a text file with a .vbs extension.  Customize the value of the strTitle variable on line 1 with the window title as it appears on the taskbar.  Customize the value of the strProgram variable on line 2 with the location of the program to run if the window title isn't found.  Running the script will activate the window with that title or, if one isn't found, start the specified program.

Unfortunately this does require that Microsoft Word be installed on the machine.  I'm unaware of another way to change focus using native VBScript.

strTitle = "Program Name"
strProgram = "c:\program.exe"
 
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set colTasks = objWord.Tasks
 
If colTasks.Exists(strTitle) Then
    colTasks(strTitle).Activate
    colTasks(strTitle).WindowState = wdWindowStateMaximize
Else
    Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    objShell.Run strProgram
End If
 
objWord.Quit

Select allOpen in new window

Shift-3,

Hmm... that's weird, using word? Ill give it a try, but I don't believe MS word is installed on the PC that this needs to work on.

What about a completely different solution?  A keyboard macro processing program like Keytext2000 (www.mjmsoft.com) can easily be scheduled to select an open window, create a new window, and even bring it to the front.  Of course, it does a lot more than this, and you have to pay for it, but it does include its own scheduler, which would make other aspects of this project a bit easier, and I suspect that you'd find it useful in other areas, too.

Just so that all you guys know, I will not abandon this question.... I am still trying to get a viable solution. I haven't been able to test your solution BillBach - I am hoping to this week.