Question:
I want to be able to run an EXE file on a button click in one of my Delphi applications. Is it possible to do this? Where do I declare the file I want to run, and how do I put it into basic code?
Answer:
If you’re running Win16, then the call to make is WinExec. For Win32 environments, you can use ShellExecute. But you really should use CreateProcess. Here’s some sample code that I use to execute external programs:
{Supply a fully qualified path name in ProgramName and any arguments on the command line. As the help file states: "If lpApplicationName is NULL, the first white space-delimited token of the command line specifies the module name..." In English, the characters before the first space encountered (or if no space is encountered as in a single program call) is interpreted as the EXE to execute. The rest of the string is the argument line.} procedure ExecNewProcess(ProgramName : String);var StartInfo : TStartupInfo; ProcInfo : TProcessInformation; CreateOK : Boolean;begin { fill with known state } FillChar(StartInfo,SizeOf(TStartupInfo),#0); FillChar(ProcInfo,SizeOf(TProcessInformation), #0); StartInfo.cb := SizeOf(TStartupInfo); CreateOK := CreateProcess(nil, PChar(ProgramName), nil, nil, False, CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP + NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, nil, nil, StartInfo, ProcInfo); { check to see if successful } if CreateOK then //may or may not be needed. Usually wait for //child processes. You can comment this line //out. WaitForSingleObject(ProcInfo.hProcess, INFINITE);end;
The function above only works for Win32 programs, it will not work for Win16–you’ll get a compiler error.
