MOM/OSB Application Button/Command Always Runs New Instance

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Office for Windows, versions 4.0, 4.2, 4.2c, 4.3, 4.3c
• Microsoft Office for Windows 95, version 7.0

SYMPTOMS

When you click an MS-DOS program button or a 16-bit (legacy) Windows program on the Microsoft Office Manager (MOM) toolbar or the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar, a new instance of the program is started, even if an instance of the same program is currently running.

CAUSE

Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar

With the Office Shortcut Bar, this behavior occurs because when you click a program's button or command on the Shortcut Bar, the Shortcut Bar only checks the 32-bit layer in memory in Windows 95 and doesn't check the 16-bit subsystem where MS-DOS and legacy programs are loaded. Therefore, the Office Shortcut Bar does not detect that a 16-bit program is already running, and starts a new instance of that program.

Microsoft Office Manager

Under Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, this behavior occurs because when you choose a program's button or command from MOM, MOM checks to see if it can locate the executable file (*.exe or *.com) for the program in memory. If MOM locates the file, it then activates that instance of the program. If the executable file is not currently loaded in memory, MOM starts the program.

However, when you run an MS-DOS program in Microsoft Windows, the program is loaded within the Cmd.exe shell. When an MS-DOS program is running, MOM only detects the Cmd.exe file in memory, and doesn't detect that the MS-DOS program's executable file is loaded in memory. MOM then loads a new instance of the program.

WORKAROUNDS

To avoid running another instance of an MS-DOS program (or under Windows 95, another instance of a legacy program), switch to the program by using any of the following methods.

Method 1: Press and hold down the ALT key, and press the TAB key repeatedly

          until the program that you want to switch to is selected.
          Release the TAB key to activate the program.

Method 3: (Windows 3.1 and Windows For Workgroups) Run Task Manager by

          doing the following:

          a. Press CTRL+ESC to run Task Manager.

          b. In the Task List, click the program that you want
             to activate, and click Switch To.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

REFERENCES

For more information about how to Switch Between Programs, choose the Search button in Microsoft Office Help and type:

   switching programs