Serge... Or anyone else who migh know

[Inhumanoid]

Serge,

Do you remember the code you provided a short while back to detect if a program was being loaded?

Dim dblID As Double
'--------------------------
'Show your animation here
'--------------------------

dblID = Shell("C:\YourExternalProgram.exe",vbNormalNoFocus)
Do Until dblID <> 0
  DoEvents
Loop

'------------------------
'Hide your animation here
'------------------------

On the one hand it was exactly what I was looking for. On the other it created another problem : The program halted until dblID was not 0.

Question:
Could there be a way to detect if a program was running and make the program not halt ??

If you can't find out how to do this:
Would you know how to do about the same stuff that your current code does but then with CreateProcess instead of Shell....

If anyone else can help... please don't keep your silence

thnx

[MartinLiss]

Use a timer. Put the Shell command (without the loop) in the timer event.

------------------
Marty

[Inhumanoid]

That works too. Has about the same result as Serge's code...

Yet it still halts the program, so the problem is the same...

[Inhumanoid]

Somebody ???? Anybody ??????

[MartinLiss]

Just to be sure I understand. Are you 1)trying to determine if a program is already running, 2) trying to start another program within your program and you want to be able to do ther stuff while it's starting, or 3) something else?

------------------
Marty

[Serge]

Let me ask you this:
What do you use for your animation? Timer control? Or something else?

------------------

Serge

Software Developer
[email protected]
[email protected]
ICQ#: 51055819

[Inhumanoid]

MartinLiss:
It's to start another program within my program, and the program wich is starting another program should detect when the program it started is completely loaded (or active). The programs wich are being started are not made by me so I can't put any code in there (like StopAnimation in form_activate event or something).

Serge:
I'm not using any animation yet because no animation can take place when I execute the code. The app is completely dead untill the program it started is fully active (I want the program not to be dead/hung).
I want it to be small led in the statusbar going on and off... So it could be two bitmap's and a timer, a two frame avi, a two frame gif etc...

[Aaron Young]

Try this:

Private Type STARTUPINFO
        cb As Long
        lpReserved As String
        lpDesktop As String
        lpTitle As String
        dwX As Long
        dwY As Long
        dwXSize As Long
        dwYSize As Long
        dwXCountChars As Long
        dwYCountChars As Long
        dwFillAttribute As Long
        dwFlags As Long
        wShowWindow As Integer
        cbReserved2 As Integer
        lpReserved2 As Long
        hStdInput As Long
        hStdOutput As Long
        hStdError As Long
End Type

Private Type PROCESS_INFORMATION
        hProcess As Long
        hThread As Long
        dwProcessId As Long
        dwThreadId As Long
End Type

Private Declare Function CreateProcess Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateProcessA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, lpProcessAttributes As Any, lpThreadAttributes As Any, ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, lpEnvironment As Any, ByVal lpCurrentDriectory As String, lpStartupInfo As Any, lpProcessInformation As PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Long
Private Declare Function WaitForInputIdle Lib "user32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Dim tSI As STARTUPINFO
    Dim tPI As PROCESS_INFORMATION
    Dim tTimer As Single
    
    If CreateProcess("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe", "", ByVal 0&, ByVal 0&, 0&, 0&, ByVal 0&, "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office", tSI, tPI) Then
        tTimer = Timer
        While WaitForInputIdle(tPI.hProcess, 1)
            If (Timer - tTimer) > 0.1 Then
                Caption = IIf(Caption = "Waiting..", "", "Waiting..")
                tTimer = Timer
            End If
        Wend
        Caption = "Done."
    End If
End Sub

------------------
Aaron Young
Analyst Programmer
[email protected]
[email protected]

[Inhumanoid]

This is the best one yet, thnx....
I also got it to change bitmaps in my statusbar.....

The program i still unusable/dead for the time the execuatble, that was started, takes to load...