I did find an excellent source from sergey for the first part my equation -
finding out if exe is open - in my case outlook

https://www.berezniker.com/content/pages/visual-foxpro/check-if-exe-running-and-optionally-terminate-it

the second stage however is what I want to reverse
in sergey's example - if exe open then close it
in my case I want: if exe closed open it.

is it possible?
thanks
k




>I am using outlook automated message send which works well when outlook is open.
>
>However I get an error message when it is not open
>
>"TEST" failed to be sent
>error 1426
>message OLE error code 0x80004004 operation aborted
>........
>line contents: SEND()
>
>
>Is there a way to OPEN outlook automatically?
>Is there a way to test if outlook is open?
>
>
>thanks k