>In the meantime, does anyone know how to suppress the flashing DOS screen that of course goes along with using task kill? Thanks so much, Steve

Check the last parameter of ShellExecute(), one of the options is to run hidden. Or, for a more robust approach, check api_apprun (ie. process.vcx) in downloads, has the option to run hidden and also to wait for the app to exit, or leave it running and return to fox.