Subject Re: unable to execute dos From Mervyn Bick <invalid@invalid.invalid> Date Sun, 2 Oct 2022 14:04:12 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On 2022/10/02 12:23, Andy Taylor wrote: > Hi Charlie, > > I've attached a picture of what happens when I type run into the windows > DOS command window. Run is not a valid command in Windows 10 and I'm not > sure it ever has been.  What version of windows is on your laptop? > Type ver in your DOS command window to find out... > > The only situation that I can think of in which "run thumbs" would work > in the DOS command window is if you have a program called run.exe in the > same folder and thumbs is used as the parameter. > > Please type dir *.exe into the DOS command window and tell us what exe > files get listed. > > Andy Charlie isn't trying to physically execute thumbs.exe from a DOS window. The RUN command in a dBASE form or program should execute outside of dBASE any .exe, .com or .bat file passed to it. On my computer RUN ( or ! which is equivalent) in the dBASE Command Panel (or in a program) opens an Alert window with the message "Syntax error". RUN load_shed or ! load_shed opens a DOS window briefly (< 1 sec) and then load_shed.exe opens in Windows.  load_shed.exe is a compiled dBASE SDI form that includes shell(false,false) in the code so it opens without showing the dBASE desktop. If, with dBASE closed, I open a Command window, navigate to the folder containing load_shed.exe and enter load_shed and press ENTER then the form opens in Windows. My guess is that, behind the scenes, RUN (or !) is implemented in dBASE as a wrap to ShellExecute() in the Windows API. Charlie, save the following as a .prg file.  Watch for line-wrap.  The extern command must all be on one line. ****** Start ******* if type( "ShellExecute" ) # "FP"    extern cHandle ShellExecute( cHandle, cString, cString,cString, cString, cInt ) shell32 from "ShellExecuteA" endif ShellExecute(_app.framewin.hwnd,"open","thumbs.exe",null,null,1) ******** End ******** The little program assumes that thumbs.exe is in the same folder as the program or the thumbs.exe folder is included in the PATH environmental variable. Copy the little program to the folder on a "good" containing your program.  Run the little program just to see that it works. Do the same on the "bad" computer.   If thumbs.exe is executed then it means that the RUN command in dBASE has been corrupted.  A reinstall of dBASE should sort this out. If thumbs.exe is not executed (it won't give any error message) when you run the little program on the "bad" computer it means that thumbs.exe is not in the same folder as the program or it's folder is not in the PATH.   Edit the little program so that "thumbs.exe" includes the path to thumbs.exe.  If thumbs.exe still doesn't run it suggests a problem with that copy of thumbs.exe.  If thumbs.exe is executed updating the PATH variable should do the trick. If none of the above work it points to a problem with shell32.dll in Windows.  A reinstall of Windows should, however, really be a last resort. Mervyn.