king simonnfhd78 fluvmvxkmmotorolacom thomas heller wrote remarks may may useful afaik single threaded com apartment needs run message loop according com rules op guiapplication calls osstartfile main thread problem console application normally message loop looking msdn docs shellexecuteex 1 function allows set additional flags shellexecuteinfo structure pass seems see_mask_flag_ddewait may something worth try 2 see_mask_flag_ddewait flag must specified thread calling shellexecuteex message loop thread process terminate soon shellexecuteex returns conditions calling thread available complete dde conversation important shellexecuteex complete conversation returning control calling application failure complete conversation result unsuccessful launch document 1 httpmsdn2microsoftcomenuslibrarybb762154aspx 2 httpmsdn2microsoftcomenuslibrarybb759784vs85aspx thomas hi thomas thanks responding gui application using wxpython calling osstartfile main thread however thanks tims suggestions ive done experimenting discovered following get webbrowseropenhttpwwwpythonorg fail fairly reliably ensuring lots tabs open firefox option showing windows tabs last time startup exiting firefox running webbrowseropenhttpwwwpythonorg firefox starts opens tab wwwpythonorg also loads tabs previous session seems take longer startfileshellexecute prepared wait fails windowserror error 2 system find file specified httpwwwpythonorg im fairly convinced problem tim referred modal dialog boxes interest running start httpwwwpythonorg command prompt similar problem blocks firefox loading tabs eventually gives waiting shows dialog box saying file found perhaps considered bug firefox file im trying launch simple file association kml command cprogram filesgooglegoogle earthgoogleearthexe 1 osstartfile returns almost immediately file association uses dde csv associated excel startfile doesnt return application finished opening file im actually certain whether message loop necessary situation calling startfile command prompt seemed working ive managed recreate file found error csv file parameter incorrect error kml file think may make startfile function using shellexecuteex really want fireandforget function example registered handler file extension would rather user saw shells application would like use dialog make ill experiment see_mask_asyncok flag thank help simon _______________________________________________ pythonwin32 mailing list kpitckaew45pythonorg httpmailpythonorgmailmanlistinfopythonwin32 thu 07 aug 2008 230011 0100 pythonwin32 osstartfile mysteriously failing