vb.net Launch application inside a form

Question

I want to run an app inside a panel or something within my applicaiton. It's an emulator front end. You browse through games, then when you select one it launches the emulator. I found the following code and adapted it to my project

Public Class Form1
    Declare Auto Function SetParent Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWndChild As IntPtr, ByVal hWndNewParent As IntPtr) As Integer
    Declare Auto Function SendMessage Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Integer) As Integer
    Private Const WM_SYSCOMMAND As Integer = 274
    Private Const SC_MAXIMIZE As Integer = 61488
    Dim proc As Process

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        proc = Process.Start("C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe")
        proc.WaitForInputIdle()

        SetParent(proc.MainWindowHandle, Panel1.Handle)
        SendMessage(proc.MainWindowHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MAXIMIZE, 0)
    End Sub
End Class

If I try it with notepad, or even zsnesw.exe it works okay, but if I try to pass some parameters to zsnesw it kind of freaks out and I have to reboot my computer (I can't switch applications or even open the task manager).

Also, even when it does work, the start menu pops up like I have switched to another app. This is kind of what I was trying to avoid in the first place as my app is full screen.

Solution 1

I got it working!

        Dim proc As Process
        proc = Process.Start(emuPath + "zsnesw", "-m """ + selGame.romPath + """")
        proc.WaitForInputIdle()
        SetParent(proc.MainWindowHandle, Me.Panel1.Handle)
        SendMessage(proc.MainWindowHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MAXIMIZE, 0)
        Me.BringToFront()

Problem 1: I was passing the arguments incorrectly. I was trying to use Process.StartInfo.Arguments. Didn't work for some reason. Using a comma in Process.Start works fine.

Problem 2: I added Me.BringToFront() to hide the start menu again.

Solution 2

Use Thread.Sleep ;)

'Run Calc application inside Panel2 control

Dim proc As Process
proc = Process.Start("Calc.exe")
proc.WaitForInputIdle()
Thread.Sleep(1000)
SetParent(proc.MainWindowHandle, Me.Panel2.Handle)
Thread.Sleep(1000)
SendMessage(proc.MainWindowHandle, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_MAXIMIZE, 0)