>Erik,
>
>You responded (in summary) with:
>
>---------------------------------
>oShell = CREATEOBJECT('Shell.Application')
>oIECollection = oShell.Windows()
>FOR EACH oIE IN oIECollection
> * Do something here
>ENDFOR
>
>The Windows method returns a zero based collection of all open instances of Explorer (including instances of IE). You can check the LocationURL property to check for the presence of a URL that begins with "http://", and activate your app if there is one. Additional note- your application can use the handle acquired by the above code to manipulate the browser through its automation model.
>
>The SHellobject is a COM interface to a lot of Windows interface elements. You need a relatively new version of SHell32.dll that ships with IE4, NT SP3 (I think), and all later versions of windows (including 98). Do a search here on shell32 for a thread on this a couple of weeks ago.
>
>-------------------
>
>I tried this on a Win98 machine with VFP5.0a, got no error, and a DISP MEMO showed me I was accessing SHELL AUTOMATION SERVICE, so my problem was an older Shell32.dll in my earlier attempts. I did the search for shell32 and found a reference to George Tasker's article in FoxPro Advisor and I'm running that down now. I also searched MS KB but found nothing helpful.
>
>I need to know more about this service, how shell32 works, properties like "locationURL", and especially what I can plug into your code line, "* Do something here". Can you point me in a source for more info? This looks very interesting...
>
>Thanks,
>Allen

The Shell.APplication object is documented in MSDN. YOu can find it by searching "shell object".

As for the properties like "LocationURL", well this is a little deceiving. The Windows collection of the shell object actually returned a collection of IE objects (the same IE object you get when issuing oIE = CREATEOBJECT("InternetExplorer.APplication"). The object model and PEMs for the IE automation object is documented in MSDN in the file ieref.chm.


Both the Shell Object, and the IE automation object are very powerful, and VERY extensive tools. I have some experience with each, so if you run into something specific that you need to do, but can't figure it out, post, and I'll see if I can help.