Help! How do you launch an application?

[MichaelK]

Hi!
I was wondering if anyone knew how to launch an application like ICQ. How do I detect if it is installed, and how do I launch it? thanks for any help you can give!

[*Vince]

Hi,

I don't know how to see if it installed but I know you can SHELL it to start it ( look for the shell function in vb help )

To find the file first, use the FindFirstFile API.

Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "FindFirstFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long

[MichaelK]

Thanks!
But is there another way? Finding a file that could be on any drive, anywhere will take a long time. Is there a way to retrieve it from the registry? (For example, the location of the ICQ executable?)

If you want to check the registry, I suggest that you use the RegOpenKeyEx API.

Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, ByVal ulOptions As Long, ByVal samDesired As Long, phkResult As Long) As Long