CodeItBetter Programming Another VB Programming Blog

'System & API - How to pass the DOS commands directly and output the results to a file.
'This example will pass the DIR command, enter C:\, and output the directory
'listing to the file C:\Dir.txt The /K switch is to keep the DOS window open but
'you can change it to the /C to close it. Also, SW_HIDE to make it totally
'transparent to the user.

Option Explicit
 
Private 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
 
Private Const SW_HIDE As Long = 0
Private Const SW_SHOWNORMAL As Long = 1
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
    ShellExecute Me.hwnd, "Open", "C:\Windows\System32\CMD.exe", _
        " /K Dir C:\  > C:\Dir.txt", "C:\", SW_SHOWNORMAL
End Sub
 
'Note: you would want to use the GetSystemDirectory API to dynamically get the 
'directory where the CMD.EXE program is located.