Question

I have to execute an .exe which is available on some drive. How can I do this using C++?

I am doing it like this:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <windows.h>
    
void main()
{
    STARTUPINFO si;

    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

    ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) );
    si.cb = sizeof(si);
    ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) );

    if(!CreateProcess(L"c:\\DOTNET.exe",NULL,NULL, NULL,FALSE, 0,NULL,NULL,&si,&pi ) ) 
    {
        printf( "CreateProcess failed (%d).\n", GetLastError() );
    }
    else
    {
        printf("Prcess Creation Success");
    }

    WaitForSingleObject( pi.hProcess, INFINITE );
    CloseHandle( pi.hProcess );
    CloseHandle( pi.hThread ); 

    getch();
}

But every time, it is showing this error:

process creation failed with error code 2 (i.e can not find the path specified)

But I place the DOTNET.exe at c:\DOTNET.exe only.

What is wrong in this code?

Answer 1

I’ve just tested your code and it’s working here with :

if(!CreateProcess(L"C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe",NULL,NULL, NULL,FALSE, 0,NULL,NULL,&si,&pi ) ) 

A C++/Win32 solution for your C/Win32 code 🙂

void ExecuteAndWait (wstring toto)
{
    STARTUPINFO si = { sizeof(si) };
    PROCESS_INFORMATION  pi;
    vector<TCHAR> V( toto.length() + 1);
    for (int i=0;i< (int) toto.length();i++)
    V[i] = toto[i];
    CreateProcess(NULL, &V[0],0, 0, FALSE, 0, 0, 0, &si, &pi);
    WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE);
    CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
    CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
}