PC Win: Mail Will Not Start Minimized from Word Macro

• Microsoft Mail for Windows, versions 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2

SYMPTOMS

You cannot use a Microsoft Word for Windows macro to start version 3.0, 3.0b, or 3.2 of Microsoft Mail for Windows minimized with the Shell command. For example, when you use the following query, Mail launches, but it is not minimized.

   shell "c:\msmail\msmail.exe", 0

CAUSE

To find out if it should launch minimized, Mail checks for the flag SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE, which is ordinal 7. However, the Word for Windows Shell command only passes ordinals 0 to 4 to another application. The Shell command passing out a 0 is equivalent to sending the flag SW_SHOWMINIMIZED, but Mail does not check that flag.

Mail should check SW_SHOWMINIMIZED instead of (or in addition to) SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in versions 3.0, 3.0b, and 3.2 of Microsoft Mail for Windows. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.