In a few cases, in particular when running MsDos batch files from within a VB application, you may want to determine the ERRORLEVEL set by an external application. You can’t do it with a plain Shell statement, but the job becomes easy with the support of the GetProcessExitCode API function:

Private Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long)Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As _    Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As LongPrivate Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As _    Long, lpExitCode As Long) As LongConst STILL_ACTIVE = &H103Const PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = &H400Private Sub cmdRunNotepad_Click()    Dim hTask As Long    Dim hProcess As Long    Dim exitCode As Long        hTask = Shell("Notepad", vbNormalFocus)    hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION, False, hTask)        ' loop until the process returns a valid exit code    Do        ' relinquish this CPU time slice        Sleep 100        DoEvents        ' query for exit code        GetExitCodeProcess hProcess, exitCode    Loop While exitCode = STILL_ACTIVE        MsgBox "Exit code = " & exitCode, vbInformation        End Sub