I have a user that needs to often run a VFP6 utility program that uses up most of the resources of a P4 2.0 GHz PC with 1 GB RAM on Windows 2000. While the utility program is running, he also needs to run a different VFP6 application that needs to start other .exe files as separate programs.

If the user is running the heavy duty utility program that slams the resources of his PC, then the other application program intermittently will not be able to start the other .exe files as separate programs. If the utility program is not running, then the application never has a problem starting the other .exe programs.

Initially the code was using the RUN command with the /N option to call the .exe program, but I now have modified the code using SHELLEXECUTE to start the other .exe programs. Unfortunately, I am finding that the problem where the .exe file does not start now even worse using SHELLEXECUTE instead of the RUN command.

Note I need the other .exe file to run independently of the calling program so I don't want the calling program to stop after the call.

I'm assuming that it is probably a memory issue, so I have experimented unsuccessfully using SYS(1104) to clean up the memory and SYS(3050) to tell the program to not expect much memory is available.

Do any of the SHELLEXECUTE parameters affect its ability to run a separate .exe program on a swamped PC?

Also, has there been significant changes to VFP8 in the areas of memory management where I could expect that this problem will be solved with just an upgrade if I return to the RUN command?

Also, I recall some messages referring to a class library that makes calls to external programs. Would this perform any better?

Thanks,
Jeff