Shell Ending

[esotrix]

I have 2 lines of code:

call shell (another command)
some other command

I do NOT want VB to execute the second line
BEFORE the "shell" id finished.

How can I get that?

[Aaron Young]

You could use the WaitForSingleObjectEx() API after getting the Process Handle from the returned ProcessID using the OpenProcess() API, i.e.

In a Module:

Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObjectEx Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long, ByVal bAlertable As Long) As Long
 
Private Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = &H1F0FFF
 
Public Function RunEXE(ByVal Filename As String) As Single
    Dim lProcessID As Long
    Dim lProcessHandle As Long
    Dim tTimer As Single
    Dim bStillRunning As Boolean
    
    tTimer = Timer
    lProcessID = Shell(Filename, vbNormalFocus)
    lProcessHandle = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, 0, lProcessID)
    Do
        bStillRunning = WaitForSingleObjectEx(lProcessHandle, 10, 0)
        DoEvents
    Loop While bStillRunning
    Call CloseHandle(lProcessHandle)
    
    RunEXE = (Timer - tTimer)
End Function

Example:

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    MsgBox "Notepad was closed after running for: " & Round(RunEXE("Notepad.exe"), 2) & " seconds.", vbInformation + vbOKOnly, "Time Running:"
End Sub

[Jason Badon]

Thanks for the code Aaron is very useful.

Jason