Running 3 dependent applications from inside VC++ : system command does not help

Hi All,

I am new to VC++ and I will be really grateful for your help.
My problem is that I want to execute 3 applications one after the other using system command in VC++ code.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eg. My VC++ code should have something like:
system("c:\\work\\scheduling-application.exe");
Sleep(2);
system("c:\\work\\receiver-applicaiton.exe");
Sleep(10);
system("c:\\work\\sender-applicaiton.exe");
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now the problem is that the above code does not run for me.
scheduling-application starts and also receiver-applicaiton starts but sender-applicaiton does not start. Rather the system hangs and I have to restart. No helpful error message just the standard error message pop-up saying "Microsoft Windows needs to close this program"

BUT if I try to run these 3 applications from outside VC++ code, they run perfectly. These 3 applications should be executed strictly in the order as shown in above code.

Can anyone please suggest what am I missing? How I should overcome this problem?

Thanks a lot!

Some programs are not amenable to being launched this way. imapxfer from U Washington was this way for me.

If System() isn't working, you might look at popen, which may work. There's also a Windows API command specifically for launching a program (besides System(), which is bad to use anyway). It's been two years since I did anything with the Windows API though, and I generally avoided calling external programs anyway.

Dont know if it helps you, cause dont know what you want to do!

API-Func:
HINSTANCE ShellExecute(
HWND hwnd, // handle to parent window
LPCTSTR lpOperation, // pointer to string that specifies operation to perform
LPCTSTR lpFile, // pointer to filename or folder name string
LPCTSTR lpParameters, // pointer to string that specifies executable-file parameters
LPCTSTR lpDirectory, // pointer to string that specifies default directory
INT nShowCmd // whether file is shown when opened
);

or

WINSHELLAPI BOOL WINAPI ShellExecuteEx(
LPSHELLEXECUTEINFO lpExecInfo // pointer to SHELLEXECUTEINFO structure
);

See Reference for descriptions!
Allows you to open (run) programs, files, hyperlinks! Or to print!