>1. I can't get WSH to give a return code.
>
>2. The API_APPRUN has a date of 1999. I am concerned about vista compatibility.

It's only a very good wrapper around the CreateProcess() and a few other API functions, so you can pass parameters, set properties etc in VFP-style, without worrying about declaring all the needed APIs. It will use the current version API as available on the target machine, and I somehow don't believe M$ would do anything wrong to the interface of these functions, they are too frequently in use.