HOWTO: Close a Shelled Process When Finished Under Windows

• Microsoft Visual Basic Professional and Enterprise Editions, for Windows, version 5.0

SUMMARY

When the Visual Basic Shell command is used to execute a batch file or MS-DOS program on Windows 95, the MS-DOS window remains open by default when the program is finished executing. Under Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and Windows NT 3.51, the MS-DOS window closes by default when the program is finished executing. This article shows how to force Windows 95 to close the MS-DOS window when the program is finished executing.

MORE INFORMATION

To force Windows 95 to close the MS-DOS window, you can use the Visual Basic Shell function with the /C option of COMMAND.COM. The /C option of COMMAND.COM will close the MS-DOS window under Windows 95. The Visual Basic syntax for using the /C option of COMMAND.COM to execute a MS-DOS program is as follows where <pathname> is the path and name of the program to execute and any command line options for it:

      h = Shell("COMMAND.COM /C <pathname>")

You may want to specify the location of COMMAND.COM using the Environ function with the parameter "COMSPEC." This will ensure that COMMAND.COM can be found even if it is not on the path. For example:

      h = Shell(Environ("COMSPEC") & " /C <pathname>")