Prevent windows from queuing shellexecute requests - winapi

Question

Win.ShellExecute 0, "open", "C:\dir\program.exe", "arguments", vbNullString, SW_SHOWNORMAL
Win.ShellExecute 0, "open", "http://www.google.com", vbNullString, vbNullString, SW_SHOWNORMAL
I want google.com to open regardless of whether or not program.exe is still running. How do I fix this? I would rather avoid things like calling "start."
Both of these calls happen pretty much instantly, and the VB program continues running. However, on both Vista and XP, google.com does not open until program.exe closes. If the application which called shellexecute closes before program.exe closes, google.com will still open once program.exe is closed.
Note:
I have found that having program.exe call doevents every 100ms or so fixes the problem, but obviously this is somewhat of a hack.
Note2:
Below is an example implementation of program.exe. Yes, I realize that changing program.exe will fix this (i.e. adding a doevents call).
Option Explicit
Public Sub Main()
Do Until False
Sleep 100
Loop
End Sub

Answer 1

I think you might have to use CreateProcess instead?

Answer 2

You may want to use the Process API rather than ShellExecute
Private Declare Function CreateProcess Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateProcessA" (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, lpProcessAttributes As Any, lpThreadAttributes As Any, ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, lpEnvironment As Any, ByVal lpCurrentDriectory As String, lpStartupInfo As STARTUPINFO, lpProcessInformation As PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Long
Private Type PROCESS_INFORMATION
hProcess As Long
hThread As Long
dwProcessId As Long
dwThreadId As Long
End Type
Private Type STARTUPINFO
cb As Long
lpReserved As String
lpDesktop As String
lpTitle As String
dwX As Long
dwY As Long
dwXSize As Long
dwYSize As Long
dwXCountChars As Long
dwYCountChars As Long
dwFillAttribute As Long
dwFlags As Long
wShowWindow As Integer
cbReserved2 As Integer
lpReserved2 As Long
hStdInput As Long
hStdOutput As Long
hStdError As Long
End Type
If you need to halt until it is done you this
Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long
The code to use look something like this
ReturnValue = CreateProcess(NullString, AppPathString, ByVal 0&, ByVal 0&, 1&, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, ByVal 0&, NullString, StartupInformation, ProcessInformation)
Do While WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInformation.hProcess, 0) <> 0
DoEvents
Loop

Answer 3

Have you tried using the intrinsic Shell to launch Program.exe, rather than ShellExecute? (I'm assuming Win.ShellExecute is the API call of the same name - you could include the declaration in your question.)
Also, tyranid is right that giving your application a form may solve the problem. I've had odd behaviour from VB6 apps with no forms.