AppActivate applied to cmd.exe

[diSangro]

Hello Community,

I have a question : why , if I try to use AppActivate applied to cmd.exe it doesn't work?

My purpose is to run a VB script from Excel which opens a Telnet or an ftp session, then it gives commands using SendKeys method. I am using the following code:
'---------------------------------------------------------------
Dim p_ID

Dim FullPath As String

FullPath = "C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe"

p_ID = Shell(FullPath, 1)

AppActivate p_ID
Application.SendKeys "ABCDE", True
'---------------------------------------------------------------


Note that :
1.If I call a different program (e.g.: FullPath = "C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe")
everything works.

2.If I use an object "WScript.Shell" I can apply object.Run "ftp....." , but login
fails.

3. If at first I open cmd.exe using : object.Run "cmd" and then I use:
Application.SendKeys "ABCDE", True it doesn't work very much.

Who has an idea? Thanks

diSangro

[Killer42]

I'm confused. I have seen AppActivate ID mentioned in a couple of messages recently. But I thought AppActivate expected a window title, not an ID. Everything I can see in both VB6 and Excel's VBA editor appears to support this.

[diSangro]

You can use either the window title , or the task ID returned by the function Shell , this is written in the VB help guide.

I'm confused. I have seen AppActivate ID mentioned in a couple of messages recently. But I thought AppActivate expected a window title, not an ID. Everything I can see in both VB6 and Excel's VBA editor appears to support this.

[Killer42]

You can use either the window title , or the task ID returned by the function Shell , this is written in the VB help guide.

Fair enough.

(I'm currently on a PC which doesn't have VB help available, or I'd have checked.)

[diSangro]

Ehy Killa!

I think I got a way to solve this problem, I should use:

sh.Exec "%COMSPEC% /k.....<whatever characters or commands>"

where sh is WShell object
but now I don't have time to try it.

What do you think?

Fair enough.

(I'm currently on a PC which doesn't have VB help available, or I'd have checked.)

[Killer42]

Ehy Killa!

I think I got a way to solve this problem, I should use:
sh.Exec "%COMSPEC% /k.....<whatever characters or commands>"
where sh is WShell object
but now I don't have time to try it.
What do you think?

It looks worth a try. Can you include an environment variable like that? If not, perhaps you can concatenate Environ$("COMSPEC") into the string, or something.

Also, if you can get it to use the START command, then you don't need to know what application to run. Just start the data file, and Windows will work out what application to use.