Name
Shell Function
Class
Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction
Syntax
Shell(pathname
[,style
][,Wait
][,Timeout
] )
-
pathname
(required; String) Name of the program to execute
-
style
(optional;AppWinStyle
enumeration) The style of window and whether it receives the focus; see Section
-
Wait
(optional; Boolean) Boolean indicating whether to wait for the
pathname
application to finish execution before continuing execution of subsequent code-
Timeout
(optional; Integer) If
Wait
isTrue
, number of milliseconds to wait for thepathname
application to terminate before the Shell function times out
Return Value
An Integer representing the Process ID, or 0
Description
Launches another application and, if successful, returns that application’s task ID
Rules at a Glance
pathname
can include a drive letter. If a drive letter is not included inpathname
, the current drive is assumed.pathname
can include a folder name. You can use either a fully qualified path (i.e., starting from the root directory) or a relative path (i.e., starting from the current directory). If the folder name is not included inpathname
, the current folder is assumed.pathname
can include any command-line arguments and switches required by the application. For example:Shell("notepad.exe c:\data.txt", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
launches Notepad, which loads the file data.txt.
Visual Basic includes the following intrinsic constants for setting the
style
argument:-
AppWinStyle.Hide
Value: 0 New application window is hidden
Focus: New application ...
-
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