outlook - ShellExecuteEx in VBA

Question

I understand how to use ShellExecute in VBA (for my Outlook macros) but I'm looking to be able to use ShellExecuteEx to wait for the executed program in my script. Does anyone have an example of how to do this? Currently I have this code:

Const SW_SHOW = 1
Const SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED = 3

Public Declare Function ShellExecute _
    Lib "shell32.dll" _
        Alias "ShellExecuteA" ( _
            ByVal Hwnd As Long, _
            ByVal lpOperation As String, _
            ByVal lpFile As String, _
            ByVal lpParameters As String, _
            ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
            ByVal nShowCmd As Long) _
As Long

'// Properties API
Private Type SHELLEXECUTEINFO
    cbSize       As Long
    fMask        As Long
    Hwnd         As Long
    lpVerb       As String
    lpFile       As String
    lpParameters As String
    lpDirectory  As String
    nShow        As Long
    hInstApp     As Long
    lpIDList     As Long
    lpClass      As String
    hkeyClass    As Long
    dwHotKey     As Long
    hIcon        As Long
    hProcess     As Long
End Type

Private Declare Function ShellExecuteEx _
    Lib "shell32.dll" ( _
        Prop As SHELLEXECUTEINFO) _
As Long

Public Function fnGetPropDlg(strFilepath As String) As Long
Dim Prop As SHELLEXECUTEINFO

With Prop
    .cbSize = Len(Prop)
    .fMask = &HC
    .Hwnd = 0&
    .lpVerb = "properties"
    .lpFile = strFilepath
End With

fnGetPropDlg = ShellExecuteEx(Prop)

End Function

and then my code calling the actual program (with ShellExecute):

RetVal = ShellExecute(0, "open", "C:Documents and SettingsmyDesktopzipTools.hta", "", "", SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED)

can anyone offer any help with switching this around so I can use ShellExecuteEx to wait for the closure of my HTA before my script execution continues?

Answer 1

Use CreateProcess() Windows API call instead.

For running a process and waiting until it finishes, use solution recommended by Microsoft which calls CreateProcessA(). Do not use ShellExecuteEx(). (You can also consider replacing your existing code.)

Reasons:

1. It is recommended directly by manufacturer. There can be several reasons behind it including recent one:

2. It is stable. ShellExecuteEx() is reported to throw exception after recent (2015) Windows updates when it is called from VBA.

In the answer to the above linked question, the code from Microsoft article is ready-to-use as separate VBA module.