Q: Shell command

I have tried to communicate my VB program with another application 
using "AppActivate" and "shell function" but it gave me an error 
message " *.dll not found". Why?

Private Sub Command1_Click()

	Dim MyAppID, ReturnValue
	MyAppID = Shell("C:\PICO\PSW32.EXE", 1)
	AppActivate MyAppID

End Sub

kwsun; kwsun@tm.net.my


A:
Shel command returns a long which is not the identification of the 
shelled application but only the result of the operation. So MyApplId 
is zero if the shell command was succesfull. In any other case there 
was a mistake.

AppActivate will bring a given application to the foreground. But you 
must call it with a parameter which is the window caption of the 
calles application. So when you want to call notepad (which is 
already started on your system - with or without the shell command -) 
you say: AppActivate "Untitled Notepad" (a empty / new notepad 
document).

But using the Shell command can bring the called application to the 
foreground and give it the focus without using the AppActivate 
command. There are some settings you can call with this command

vbHide	 	 0	Window is hidden and focus is passed to the hidden window.
vbNormalFocus	 1	Window has focus and is restored to its original size
			and position. 
vbMinimizedFocus 2	Window is displayed as an icon with focus. 
vbMaximizedFocus 3	Window is maximized with focus.
vbNormalNoFocus	 4	Window is restored to its most recent size andposition. The 
			currently active window remains active. 
vbMinimizedNoFocus 6	Window is displayed as an icon. The currently active window 
			remains active.

So if you change the code to lngResult = Shell("C:\PICO\PSW32.EXE", 3) 
you will be sure that the application c:\pico\psw32.exe is maximized 
and has the focus.


Return