N00b question: Opening Apps from a VB App

[plastic]

Hey,
Im fairly new to vb and was wondering if there was a way to open applications such as notepad by, say, clicking on a command button from inside a vb application. I mean actually opening up notepad like it would if you were to double click on notepad.exe from C:\Windows.
Thanks so much in advance.

Plastic

 

[SashiRaveendran]

Shell "notepad.exe",vbNormalFocus

 

[plastic]

On trying that with a command button, when i click on it in run time i get: Run time error 5 Invalid call or argument.

Also, is C:\Windows its default lookup directory or something, as you just put notepad.exe

Anyway, thanks in advance

Plastic

 

[SashiRaveendran]

that weird, ok may try putting in the whole path, ie c:\windows\notepad.exe.

remember that if you r distributing this app that the windows directory has a differnet folder name for different versions of windows. There is code available that returns you the path of the win directory.

 

[plastic]

No such luck, still same error. On debug, all it does is highlights the whole line

Thanks

Plastic

 

[SashiRaveendran]

what version of VB are you running

 

[SashiRaveendran]

what happens when you type "notepad" in the run box in the Start button menu?

 

[CajunCenturion]

Shell is a function, therefore the argument list should be inside of parenthesis

Try

Shell("notepad.exe", vbNormalFocus)

If you want to pass a parameter to, in this example, notepad, you need to include the parameter list for the application all in the first parameter to the shell

CmdLine = &quot;notepad.exe&quot; & &quot; &quot; & <somefilename>
Shell(CmdLine, vbNormalFocus)

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[plastic]

Oh dear, none of these seem to be working. I am running version 6. I am also having major problems with illegal operation.
Thanks in advance.

Plastic

 

[Swi]

Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib &quot;shell32.dll&quot; _
Alias &quot;ShellExecuteA&quot; (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation _
As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, _
ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

Private Sub Command1_Click()
res = ShellExecute(hWnd, vbNullString, &quot;YOURFILENAME&quot;, vbNullString, vbNullString, vbNormalFocus)
End Sub Swi

 

[plastic]

Hey,
Swi's code got it working, thanks everyone for helping. I had no idea the code would be so complex just to open a single app!!!

plastic

 

[mannion]

You could also use this

make a form add a button, enter this code in for the button

Shell (&quot;c:\winnt\notepad.exe&quot

this should also run notepad!!!!!! James Mannion
IT Officer
James_m_is@hotmail.com