How to execute another program from a Visual C++ Application - windows

Question

I am doing a software project with Visual Studio Professional 2010.
In the form that I am making, I would like to put a link to open Microsoft Paint. How can I execute another application (MSPaint) from mine?

Answer 1

Call ShellExecute() passing open as the verb and mspaint.exe as the filename.
ShellExecute(
MainFormWindowHandle,
"open",
"mspaint.exe",
NULL,
NULL,
SW_SHOW
);

Answer 2

My contribution a complete example:
Go to Visual Studio, create a new Win32 C++ Project (not console), and paste the following code in the source file will appear:
// Win32Project1.cpp : Defines the entry point for the application.
//
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "Win32Project1.h"
#include "shellapi.h"
int APIENTRY _tWinMain(_In_ HINSTANCE hInstance,
_In_opt_ HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
_In_ LPTSTR lpCmdLine,
_In_ int nCmdShow)
{
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(hPrevInstance);
UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(lpCmdLine);
ShellExecuteA ( NULL, "open",
"your.exe",
"your params",
"working dir", SW_SHOW);
return TRUE;
}

Answer 3

Myself I contribute the following code which can be used in Windows
#include <iostream>
#include<Windows.h>
using namespace std;
int main()
{
STARTUPINFO si;
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
DWORD dwProcessId = 0;
DWORD dwThreadId = 0;
ZeroMemory(&si, sizeof(si));
ZeroMemory(&pi, sizeof(pi));
bool bCreateProcess = NULL;
bCreateProcess = CreateProcess((Location of Paint path),0,0,0,0,0,0,0,&si, pi);
//Instead of 0 NULL can also be used
if (bCreateProcess == FALSE)
cout << " Creation Process Failed ";
else
cout << " Process Executedd ";
CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
}