ShellExecuteEx API

[Suzie999]

I'm running this code.

SHELLEXECUTEINFO ExecuteInfo = { 0 };

    ExecuteInfo.cbSize       = sizeof(ExecuteInfo);
    ExecuteInfo.fMask        = 0;                
    ExecuteInfo.hwnd         = nullptr;                
    ExecuteInfo.lpVerb       = L"open";                                     
    ExecuteInfo.lpFile       = L"C:\\progra~1\\intern~1\\iexplore.exe";     
    ExecuteInfo.lpParameters = L"http://www.google.co.uk";              
    ExecuteInfo.lpDirectory  = nullptr;                                     
    ExecuteInfo.nShow        = SW_SHOW;
    ExecuteInfo.hInstApp     = nullptr;

    ShellExecuteEx(&ExecuteInfo);

    Sleep(5000);

    CloseWindow((HWND)ExecuteInfo.hwnd);

    exit(GetLastError());

It's not closing the window.
And it's exiting with code 1400 (invalid window handle)

Any idea's what I'm doing wrong?

[Ancient Dragon]

you should call WaitForSingleObject() instead of Sleep(). Also you need to validate ShellExecute() did not return an error number.

[Suzie999]

Thank you for your reply.

If I add if(WaitForSingleObject(ExecuteInfo.hwnd,INFINITE) == 0xFFFFFFFF){exit(GetLastError());}; It errors out on that call with 0xfffffff (WAIT_FAILED) with get last error being 6 (The handle is invalid)

Which looks pretty much the same, I tested the execute function like so if (!ShellExecuteEx(&ExecuteInfo)) {exit(MessageBox(nullptr, L"ShellExecuteEx fail", L"Error", MB_OK));};
which appears to be fine.

I am expecting that call to fill in the HWND member, am I correct on that?

[nullptr]

Read the documentation on the SHELLEXECUTEINFO structure at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb759784(v=vs.85).aspx
In particular regarding the hProcess member.

[nullptr]

Seeing as you're wanting to close the window, the main problem you're going to have is that with protected mode/IE7+ the first process created is a broker process that then then launches a low integrity process. This second process is the one you see, but the handle returned from ShellExecuteEx or CreateProcess is the handle to the broker process, which isn't of much use to you.

Using the com interface IWebBrowser2 would allow you to close the window:

#include <ExDisp.h>
#include <comutil.h>

#pragma comment (lib, "comsupp")

int wmain()
{
    if (SUCCEEDED(OleInitialize(nullptr)))
    {
        IWebBrowser2 *pBrowser = nullptr;

        CoCreateInstance(
            CLSID_InternetExplorer, 
            nullptr, 
            CLSCTX_LOCAL_SERVER, 
            IID_IWebBrowser2, 
            reinterpret_cast<void**>(&pBrowser)
            );

        if (pBrowser)
        {
            VARIANT vEmpty;
            VariantInit(&vEmpty);

            _bstr_t strURL = L"http://www.google.co.uk";

            HRESULT hr = pBrowser->Navigate(strURL, &vEmpty, &vEmpty, &vEmpty, &vEmpty);
            if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
            {
                pBrowser->put_Visible(VARIANT_TRUE);
                // wait 5 seconds
                Sleep(5000);               
            }

            // close window and clean up
            pBrowser->Quit();
            pBrowser->Release();
        }

        OleUninitialize();
    }

    return 0;
}

[Suzie999]

nullptr, thank you for that, I never thought about doing it that way.
I do need the window handle though for other reasons, but the get_HWND method gives me that too.

Thank you very much for your time and help.
Suzie.

(edit)
I'm curious, is it possible with COM method, to interface with an already running instance on Internet Explorer?