Closing a DOS prompt window

After you run a DOS application in Windows 95, the MS-DOS Prompt window doesn't close. To prevent this behavior, you can use the API to find the Window handle for the DOS prompt window, wait for the program to finish running, then zap the DOS prompt window into oblivion.

This technique doesn't require any forms. It's just a simple VB 4.0 DLL with two properties: the EXE name of the DOS program and the text that will appear as the caption of the DOS prompt window displaying this application. The core of this app lies in three API calls. Place the following code in a standard module:

Code

Declare Function FindWindow& Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" _
(ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String)Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias _
"SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, _
ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As LongDeclare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds _
As Long)Public Const WM_CLOSE = &H10

The rest of the code goes in the following class module, named Cclose:

Private m_sEXEName As String
Private m_sDosCaption As StringPublic Sub RunDosApp()

Dim vReturnValue As Variant
Dim lRet As Long
Dim i As Integer

vReturnValue = Shell(m_sEXEName, 1) 'Run EXE
AppActivate vReturnValue 'Activate EXE Window

Do

Sleep (10000)

lRet = FindWindow(vbNullString, m_sDosCaption)

If (lRet <> 0) Then
    vReturnValue = SendMessage(lRet, WM_CLOSE, &O0, &O0)
Exit Do
End If

Loop

End Sub