Open .exe without Shell

[Moosak]

@Moosak welcome aboard. You are relatively new but haven't posted much. Can you explain why you would recommend using a Windows API call rather than native Access code? Is there something about it that is better, in which case we'd love to know that.

Hi @Pat Hartman
I'm still at the beginning of the journey.
I recommended using this procedure for two reasons, firstly because that he requested not to use the Shell function, secondly I tested it and it does not fire alert messages. and I did not pay attention to the issue of IT men

 

[gemma-the-husky]

At times like these I wonder what Moss and Roy would do.

 

[NauticalGent]

At times like these I wonder what Moss and Roy would do.

Had to look that one up...!

 

[Gasman]

When I was in the Merchant Navy, a 'professional 3rd engineer' (an engineer who never took any of the exams and hence could not go any higher than 3rd) used to give me stick, as I went to college as a cadet to pass my exams and then move on to get my 2nd Engineers ticket.

Stick was along the lines of 'you youngsters only know it in theory'. I have been doing this for years.

One day he called me to ask for help, as the A/C was not working well. I was the Cargo Engineer at the time, looking after the refigeration of the gas cargo, Propane & Butane or Ammonia.

I switched the machine on and ran a few tests, then pointed to a particular head on the compressor and said 'Those valves are broken'
Are you sure he said.
Yes I said, positive
He then said, I don't want to strip it down only to find there is nothing wrong with them.
Up to you I said, but I'll give you a hand if you want.

So we took the head off and sure enough, the valves were bust. Put in two sets of spares, boxed it up, purged it and got it running.
Bingo, all working great again. The ship can break down in the middle of the ocean and noone gives a damn, if the A/C goes down, there is a riot.

After that, I never heard a peep out of him. rofl

 

[gemma-the-husky]

When I was in the Merchant Navy, a 'professional 3rd engineer' (an engineer who never took any of the exams and hence could not go any higher than 3rd) used to give me stick, as I went to college as a cadet to pass my exams and then move on to get my 2nd Engineers ticket.

Stick was along the lines of 'you youngsters only know it in theory'. I have been doing this for years.

One day he called me to ask for help, as the A/C was not working well. I was the Cargo Engineer at the time, looking after the refigeration of the gas cargo, Propane & Butane or Ammonia.

I switched the machine on and ran a few tests, then pointed to a particular head on the compressor and said 'Those valves are broken'
Are you sure he said.
Yes I said, positive
He then said, I don't want to strip it down only to find there is nothing wrong with them.
Up to you I said, but I'll give you a hand if you want.

So we took the head off and sure enough, the valves were bust. Put in two sets of spares, boxed it up, purged it and got it running.
Bingo, all working great again. The ship can break down in the middle of the ocean and noone gives a damn, if the A/C goes down, there is a riot.

After that, I never heard a peep out of him. rofl

Clearly there's a reason why you're the @Gasman

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Had to look that one up...!

My son got me into the IT Crowd. My word, it's funny.

 

[Minty]

I have a client that needed to be able to fire an sFTP transfer from Access.
The Client lead (a senior partner) made sure that the Head of IT was talking to me about what I needed.
He got his head IT technician to talk to me, and the sFTP program gets added to their white list of approved software.

All very simple and painless, and super helpful IT guy. I can pretty much get him to assist me with anything provided I explain the end goal clearly. Great working relationship.

 

[NauticalGent]

All very simple and painless, and super helpful IT guy.

A rare occurrence in my world...you're lucky

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I have a client that needed to be able to fire an sFTP transfer from Access.
The Client lead (a senior partner) made sure that the Head of IT was talking to me about what I needed.
He got his head IT technician to talk to me, and the sFTP program gets added to their white list of approved software.

All very simple and painless, and super helpful IT guy. I can pretty much get him to assist me with anything provided I explain the end goal clearly. Great working relationship.

It can't be unusual now for a database to want to send/receive ftp files.
I presume IT depts don't have an issue with FileZilla as a desktop app.

 

[Gasman]

I did get assistance from one Access programmer in IT for that bank DB, with regard to interfacing with one of their DBs, but just the one.

 

[Moosak]

That's fine but the previous poster posted the Access version of the API which works just fine and is one line of code. I was just wondering if you had any information to suggest that the API was somehow BETTER than the Access method. It sounds like you don't so that's fine. Usually when a question has been answered, we don't offer alternate but equal solutions unless the poster asks for one because he can't get the first one to work unless we know that our method is somehow better.

Is there any worries from using APIs?

 

[aivars]

Hello, on my computer Application.FollowHyperling gives a warning window (picture)
Using API function, as suggested, works without popping up that window.


Windows 10, Access 2021, 2207 version

 

[arnelgp]

you don't need api:

CreateObject("Shell.Application").Namespace(0).ParseName("c:\windows\notepad.exe").InvokeVerb "Open"

 

[aivars]

Thanks, @arnelgp , yours does the trick too.

 

[Moosak]

You can write it this way also :

Shell "explorer.exe" & " " &"c:\windows\notepad.exe" &, vbNormalFocus

No popp ups.

 

[kevnaff]

Just curious, does FollowHyperlink work?

Application.FollowHyperlink myPath

Hi theDBguy,

I used the following code:

Dim myPath As String

myPath = "H:\QA90PRO32\QA90PRO.exe"
Application.FollowHyperlink myPath

and got this message:

When clicking OK I get this:

When clicking debug the following is highlighted:

 

[kevnaff]

You can use this code also :

Public Declare PtrSafe Function FileProtocolHandler Lib "url.dll" _
      Alias "FileProtocolHandlerA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal hinst As Long, _
      ByVal lpszCmdLine As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

Public Sub OpenHyperlink(ByVal Url)
  FileProtocolHandler 0, 0, Url, 1
End Sub

And call it this way :

OpenHyperlink "H:\QA90PRO32\QA90PRO.exe"

Hi Moosak,

I've given this a go and I'm not sure that I've copied the code to the correct places.

I created a new module and copied the top section of code.

I then copied OpenHyperlink "H:\QA90PRO32\QA90PRO.exe" in to the on click event of my command button.

When clicking the command button nothing happens.

Have I copied the code to the correct place?

Thanks

 

[gemma-the-husky]

Hi theDBguy,

I used the following code:

Dim myPath As String

myPath = "H:\QA90PRO32\QA90PRO.exe"
Application.FollowHyperlink myPath

and got this message:

View attachment 102798

When clicking OK I get this:

View attachment 102799

When clicking debug the following is highlighted:

View attachment 102800

The trouble is probably that you are trying to open an application - and not open a document (such as a pdf) that HAS an associated application. I thought that might happen, to be honest, as your problem was to open a program without using shell. You should error trap the statement, but that doesn't solve the issue.

 

[Moosak]

When clicking the command button nothing happens.

Nothing will happen if the file is not exists.
Check that first and make sure the path is written correctly.

 

[Moosak]

You can try this one also :

Public Sub OpenPath(strPath As String)
Shell "explorer.exe" & " " & strPath, vbNormalFocus
End Sub

and call it like this :

OpenPath "H:\QA90PRO32\QA90PRO.exe"