Windows XP start 2 programs at once

[KingArtur]

Hi there!

I was wondering if there is an easy way to start one program when I start another program. Like, if I started up program A, say Word, then program B, say WMP, would automatically start; but not the other way around. Thx

 

[Me__2001]

you can make a .BAT file that will open the files, then all you need to do is run the file and they will open, but this doesn't always work or you may be able to use a macro in word

 

[KingArtur]

Thanks for your help!

I had this idea but thought if there are other ways...
Well I'll have to act this way seemingly...

 

[Zhoul]

There's a million ways to accomplish this, however, we need a bit more specification to determine the best method.

If you're only looking at trying to launch Program A by clicking an icon, then a batch file is the simple solution. Remember to use the "Start" command to launch the programs, so the batch file doesnt wait for the first one to finish, before it launches the second program.

i.e.

start "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe"
start "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"

You can even do this to Start Menu links, web URL's, dang near anything you can double-click in windows...

i.e.

start "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Games\Thief - Deadly Shadows\Play Thief.lnk"
start "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Games\Thief - Deadly Shadows\Thief Trainer.lnk"


I do this for situations like GTA and the GTA Monitor program. When I click my *new* GTA button, it will kill any previous GTA Monitor thats running on my 2nd computer, launch GTA Monitor on my 2nd computer, then launch GTA on my local computer.

It waits until GTA has exited on my local computer (simply by not launching GTA with the Start command) , then it kills GTA Monitor on my 2nd PC, Clean and neat.


Just let me know what you're trying to accomplish and I'll paste some batch code I've written pertaining to that area.

 

[Me__2001]

start "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe"
start "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"

i write my code with out the quote marks does that make a difference? because i cant always get them to work, sometimes says the file cant be found but sometimes works no problem

 

[Zhoul]

Quote marks are to explicitly specify 1 string. Depending on how you use them will determine if it works or not. Some DOS commands think that space means 'new argument', so I use quote marks to negate that issue.

i.e.

Lets say I have a file called test.txt in c:\documents and settings

If I had a .bat file that wanted to copy a file from there to whatever directory the bat file were in, I would have to use quotes, because documents and settings has 2 spaces...

Works:
copy "C:\documents and settings\test.txt" .

Doesnt Work:
copy c:\documents and settings\test.txt .

In the Doesn't work example, copy would think i'm trying to copy c:\documents to and - also, it wouldnt know what the heck to do with settings\test.txt

Trial and error at first and then it becomes second nature (as to when to use them, and when not).