Starting an EXE from within a VB.NET program

Hello,

I have an executable (EXE) that I would like to run from within my VB.NET program. I've looked into Process.Start("[PATH]\[EXE]"), where PATH is the path to my executable, and EXE is the name of the executable. However this throws an error, saying "The parameter is incorrect". I've managed to avoid this error with the following code:

Code:

---

        Dim proc As New Process
        With proc.StartInfo
            .WorkingDirectory = _STFileInfo.DirectoryName
            .FileName = _STFileInfo.Name
        End With

        proc.Start()

---

I should note that _STFileInfo is a variable of FileInfo type that holds the path of my executable. However, using the above code, all that happens is the command shell is opened then immediately closed. My executable doesn't appear to have run at all. I've also tried adding "proc.WaitForExit()" after "proc.Start()", but that doesn't seem to do anything.

Any ideas?

Your code:

Code:

---

Dim myFileInfo As New FileInfo(Application.StartupPath & "\EXE.exe")
        Dim myProcess As New Process
        myProcess.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = myFileInfo.DirectoryName
        myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = myFileInfo.Name
        myProcess.Start()

---

Or:

Code:

---

Process.Start(Application.StartupPath & "\EXE.exe")

---

Good luck

Is it required that the executable reside within the application's startup directory? Otherwise I don't see any difference between your code and mine.

This example starts Wordpad, opens a file in the app folder (although it could be anyplace), sets the working folder to My Documents (but for Word pad it really does not matter).

We only use the app folder since we know this folder exists and should be rights have permissions to this folder.

Code:

---

Private Sub Demo_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles cmdDemo.Click
  Dim FileToRead As String = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "Document.txt")
  If Not IO.File.Exists(FileToRead) Then
      IO.File.WriteAllText(FileToRead, "Just created!!!")
  End If
  Dim regVersion As RegistryKey
  regVersion = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\wordpad.exe", True)
  If regVersion IsNot Nothing Then
      Dim proc As New Process
      With proc.StartInfo
        .FileName = regVersion.GetValue("").ToString
        .Arguments = IO.Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "Document.txt")
        .WorkingDirectory = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments)
      End With
      proc.Start()
  End If
End Sub

---

Now suppose WordPad did care about the working directory to find files if the working folder was incorrect it may not start and give no error message.

You best bet to start with is to set a break point on your code to see what the values are for WorkingDirectory and FileName to ensure they are indeed valid.

try changing _STFileInfo.Name to _STFileInfo.FullName