i need to shell out a cmd.exe command and get the response

[James King]

i want to use the "SYSTEMINFO |find/i"Total Physical Memory:"" command and then get the response into a textbox(field) within access.

I have a database of all MachineNames in the company and for each machine name i have a field for the Memory, CPU, WindowsInstallDate etc etc but i want to be able to use a 'refresh/update' CmdButton on the form which will query the machine and update the relevant fields on the form.

i have been able to write the reply into >C:\output.txt and then read the contents of the output.txt file back into access and use that.... but ewwwww!!!! that's very messy!!!

there must be a simple way to set it as a variable?

like

StrTempMemory = shell(CMD.exe "SYSTEMINFO |find/i'Total Physical Memory:'")
 

and then Textbox.Value = StrTempMemory
i know it's the wrong code but (off the top of my head) it demonstrates what i mean...

[FishVal]

• You may use program's StdOut stream to omit temporary file. However it isn't much more simpler.
• You may use WinAPI GlobalMemoryStatus() function. However you may find it too much messy too.
• You may accept this imperfect world and let your program do all messy job for you.

[James King]

Damn :(
that's a suprise :(
shtoopid kompooterz

[ADezii]

I do not believe that what you are requesting can easily be accomplished. What I have done is to create a Public Function that will accept a single Parameter representing the specific Information to be requested. The Function will then read the associated Value from your Output File and return it. The Control Sources of various Text Boxes can then be set to the Function, passing to it the appropriate Argument. I'll simply post the Code along with some sample Calls, and let you make the final determination as to its usefulness, since it still is 'kludgy'.

Public Function fRetrieveSystemInfo(strInfoParameter As String) As Variant
Dim strLine As String
Dim intPosOfSemiColon As Integer
Const conPATH_TO_INFO_FILE As String = "C:\Test\Output.txt"
 
Open conPATH_TO_INFO_FILE For Input As #1    ' Open file.
 
fRetrieveSystemInfo = Null      'Initialize to NULL
 
Do While Not EOF(1)             'Loop until end of file.
  Line Input #1, strLine        'Read entire Line into variable.
    If Left$(strLine, Len(strInfoParameter)) = strInfoParameter Then
      intPosOfSemiColon = InStrRev(strLine, ":")        'Where is the last Semi-Colon?
        If InStr(strLine, "Directory") > 0 Then         'Unique case
          'Return the Value (Trimmed), given the specific Parameter
          fRetrieveSystemInfo = Trim(Mid$(strLine, intPosOfSemiColon - 1))
        Else
          'Return the Value (Trimmed), given the specific Parameter
          fRetrieveSystemInfo = Trim(Mid$(strLine, intPosOfSemiColon + 1))
        End If
    End If
Loop
 
Close #1    ' Close file.
End Function

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Host Name")
ADEZII

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("OS Name")
Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("OS Version")
5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("OS Manufacturer")
Microsoft Corporation

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("OS Configuration")
Member Workstation

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("OS Build Type")
Multiprocessor Free

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("System Up Time")
15 Days, 7 Hours, 13 Minutes, 32 Seconds

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("BIOS Version")
DELL   - 7

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Windows Directory")
C:\WINDOWS

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("System Directory")
C:\WINDOWS\system32

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Total Physical Memory")
1,790 MB

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Virtual Memory: In Use")
52 MB

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Logon Server")
\\RPACFSO2

Debug.Print fRetrieveSystemInfo("Nonsense String")
Null

'As the Control Source of a Text Box displaying Total Physical Memory:
=fRetrieveSystemInfo("Total Physical Memory")

[NeoPa]

There is no interface I'm aware of that allows VBA code to interact with a command prompt or any of it's possible commands.

You could screen-scrape from the Command Prompt window using the Windows API (Fish provides a link) or you can pipe the results to a file and read the contents later into memory. If I needed to do this I'd use the latter approach certainly.