I'm a novice when it comes to VB (I'm a VFP programmer) so please excuse me.

Do you mean to say that the command R = Shell ("Start.exe Notepad.exe", vbHide)will run Notepad WITHIN my VB app (as though Notepad was just another window in my MDI) or will it run outside of the MDI (ie still appear as a seperate program on the Windows desktop).

David.