I have on old dos program writen In QuickBasic 4.5

it does the following

1 Shell "AProg"
2 {Check files writen by AProg.exe}

when I convert to Visual Basic, The shell app runs but the original
program does not stop and thus, the files that need to be checked
are from the last time AProg ran.

what I need is

1 Shell "AProg"
2 {What untill AProg is no longer running}
2 {Check files writen by AProg.exe}

But I can't seem to come up with a fool proof method.
Is there a way in VB4 to "ask" windows what programs
are running?

                Thanks in advance,   Scott.

If you specify the OS, I can be more specific.

Randy Birch
Microsoft MVP

Moderator, Fidonet Visual Basic Programmer's Conference

Visit VBnet at http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/rasanen/

        Thanks.                 Scott.

I had a similar problem, however I was working with VB 1.00 at the time.
The Shell function is supposed to return the Task ID of the Task that is
starts. I used the IsTask() Win16 API function in a loop to check if the
Task ID became invalid, when it became invalid the Task was closed. I just
used a simple while loop and used the return value of IsTask() as the
condition. I also had to use the yield API call to give up time slices in
my polling loop.

I think the IsTask() API function has been removed from the Win32 API.

It looks like you could use the following API if you are coding for the
Win32 API. You call this function supplying the Process ID, and it will
return either the exit value of the process, or an indicator that it is
still running through lpdwExitCode.

BOOL GetExitCodeProcess(hProcess, lpdwExitCode)

   HANDLE hProcess;
   LPDWORD lpdwExitCode;

For further information look at PSS ID Number: Q108228 from Microsoft. If
you do a search of the Knowledge Base it might turn up.

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I've been using the following code from VB4-32 to wait for a shelled task
to end...  it seems a lot simpler than other methods I have seen and I'd
appreciate any comments on why it may not always work.  I suspect that it
may be ineffective for Windows NT systems but since I am using only Win95
currently I can't test that...
Declare Function GetModuleFileName Lib "kernel32" Alias
"GetModuleFileNameA"_
        (ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal lpFileName As String, _
        ByVal nSize As Long) As Long
Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)

Public Sub WaitForTaskEnd(hTask As Long) ' hTask is the return value from
SHELL
Dim strName As String * 512
Dim x As Long
Do
  x = GetModuleFileName(hTask, strName, x)
  If x > 0 Then Sleep 500&
Loop Until x < 1
End Sub

Here's a down and dirty way to do it:

The shell FUNCTION will return a windows task handle.
Save the handle in a global long and then you can use
a timer and in it's event do the following:

Sub Timer1_Timer
On Error Goto getout
AppActivate taskhandle
Exit Sub
getout:
timer1.enabled = false
{put your code for your second step here}
EndSub

Once the shelled program has ended, AppActivate will error
when it tries to execute, and then you can run your second
set of code.

This only works, of course, if you can have the shelled program
hog system focus.  If you want to do this in the background,
you will have to use some module specific API calls.

Mike