Probably been asked before but: should I or shouldn't I.

Hi,
I have several rather lengthy asp routines that have been working flawlessly for about two years. I'm wondering if there would be any benifit to converting them over to asp.net.

A couple of questions:
The last asp page in these sessions runs a CGI which in turn "Shells" an exe which updates several databases. I do this because the exe may take 1/2 minute to complete. If it were done through the asp page itself, the browser locks until the database routine has completed.

Will asp.net allow me to run a long routine without locking the browser?
Can you shell an exe without going through a CGI?
Can you access winapi functions through asp.net?

Thanks,
Al.