ShellExecute not working from IDE but works otherwise - delphi

Question

I want to create and then open a txt file using the ShellExecute command.
I have used this code for years with Delphi 7 and it worked:
function Execute(CONST ExeName, Parameters: string): Boolean;
begin
Result:= ShellExecute(0, 'open', PChar(ExeName), PChar(Parameters), nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL)> 32;
end;
Now, I switched to Windows 7 and the code is not working anymore when it runs from IDE. Delphi shows the CPU window with the caption "CPU-Process unknown (2352)". I close the CU windows and everything works fine until I close the application, when Delphi shows the CPU window one more time.
If I run the app from outside IDE, it works fine.
Looks like the debugger has something to say to me, but I don't know what.

Answer 1

Sounds to me like you have the "debug spawned processes" option turned on. When that's enabled, the debugger interrupts the new process at the earliest possible time. Press the "run" button to let it continue running.
You can confirm this hypothesis the next time you debug your program. Compare the process ID (2352, in your example) with the list of processes shown by Task Manager. Which process in that list matches the process ID reported by the debugger?

Answer 2

This is not the answer for your question (I vote for Rob Kennedy & Chris Thornton), but you can write your routine in a more compact way:
function Executa(const ExeName, Parameters: string): Boolean;
begin
Result :=
(ShellExecute(0, 'open', PChar(ExeName), Pointer(Parameters), nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) > 32);
end;
Note Pointer() instead of PChar() for 4th argument. This is a documented behaviour of PChar/Pointer casts (see help).

Answer 3

I had a problem yesterday with the debugger crashing my application, but running it outside the IDE it would run fine. I was using packages in my development.
I used process explorer to verify I found I was loading a copy from another location than expected. I had two copies of the same BPL floating around. Once I removed the one I was not compiling I was fine.
Applying that to this problem, I would check to make sure you don't have any copies of compiled code that includes: .DCU, .DCP, .BPL, .EXE around. Then I would also make sure you you can ctrl-click on "ShellExecute" to and see the declaration. You may have your library path setup in a way that it can't find the source.

Answer 4

Shot in the dark here, but try running the IDE as administrator, and then not as administrator. That may be a factor. Some users make a shortcut with the administrator option set, so that the auto-update runs successfully. So you may be running the IDE as admin, if you've done that.

Answer 5

Same by me , i solved it by replacing ShellExecute with following:
function TformMain.CreateProcessSimple(
sExecutableFilePath : string )
: string;
function GetExeByExtension(sExt : string) : string;
var
sExtDesc:string;
begin
with TRegistry.Create do
begin
try
RootKey:=HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT;
if OpenKeyReadOnly(sExt) then
begin
sExtDesc:=ReadString('') ;
CloseKey;
end;
if sExtDesc <>'' then
begin
if OpenKeyReadOnly(sExtDesc + '\Shell\Open\Command') then
begin
Result:= ReadString('') ;
end
end;
finally
Free;
end;
end;
end;
var
pi: TProcessInformation;
si: TStartupInfo;
fapp: string;
begin
fapp:=GetExeByExtension(ExtractFileExt(sExecutableFilePath));
FillMemory( #si, sizeof( si ), 0 );
si.cb := sizeof( si );
if Pos('%1',fApp)>0 then begin
sExecutableFilePath:=StringReplace(fapp,'%1',sExecutableFilePath,[rfReplaceAll]);
end else begin
sExecutableFilePath:=fApp+' "'+sExecutableFilePath+'"';
end;
CreateProcess(
Nil,
// path to the executable file:
PChar( sExecutableFilePath ),
Nil, Nil, False,
NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, Nil, Nil,
si, pi );
// "after calling code" such as
// the code to wait until the
// process is done should go here
CloseHandle( pi.hProcess );
CloseHandle( pi.hThread );
end;

Answer 6

ShellExecuteW solve my problems (XE2/Win7/32bit) with "debug spawned processes" option turned off
:)
mybe because strings and pchar are wide pointer from 2010