ShellExecuteEx crashes in Excel VBA

Question

since Windows updates occurred an api call to ShellExecuteEx(sExecuteInfo) crashes saying "unhandled exception at 0x75F7A529 (shell32.dll) Access violation reading location 0x68686903". I have no clue what is wrong here, can you help me please ?

Definition :

Private Type SHELLEXECUTEINFO
cbSize       As Long
fMask        As Long
Hwnd         As Long
lpVerb       As String
lpFile       As String
lpParameters As String
lpDirectory  As String
nShow        As Long
hInstApp     As Long
lpIDList     As Long
lpClass      As String
hkeyClass    As Long
dwHotKey     As Long
hIcon        As Long
hProcess     As Long
End Type

Private Const STILL_ACTIVE As Long = &H103 ' Constant for the lpExitCode parameter of the GetExitCodeProcess API function.

Private Declare PtrSafe Function ShellExecuteEx Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteExA" (lpExecInfo As SHELLEXECUTEINFO) As Long

Code:

Private Function ShellAndWait(ByVal szProgram As String, Optional ByVal szOptions As String, Optional ByVal iWindowState As Integer = vbHide) As Boolean

Dim lTaskID As Long
Dim lReturn As Long
Dim lExitCode As Long
Dim lResult As Long
Dim bShellAndWait As Boolean
Dim hInstance As Object
Dim lPriority As Long

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler

Dim sExecuteInfo As SHELLEXECUTEINFO
sExecuteInfo.cbSize = Len(sExecuteInfo)
sExecuteInfo.lpVerb = "open"
sExecuteInfo.lpFile = szProgram
sExecuteInfo.lpParameters = szOptions
sExecuteInfo.nShow = &H7    ' Parameter SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE,     (0x7)       , displays the window as a minimized window. The active window remains active.
sExecuteInfo.fMask = &H8140 ' Parameter SEE_MASK_NO_CONSOLE     (0x00008000), use to inherit the parent's console for the new process instead of having it create a new console
                            ' Parameter SEE_MASK_NOASYNC        (0x00000100), wait for the execute operation to complete before returning.
                            ' Parameter SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS (0x00000040), puts process id back in sExecuteInfo.hProcess
lPriority = &H100000 'PROCESS_MODE_BACKGROUND_BEGIN
lReturn = ShellExecuteEx(sExecuteInfo)
'Loop while the shelled process is still running.
Do
    'lExitCode will be set to STILL_ACTIVE as long as the shelled process is running.
    lResult = GetExitCodeProcess(sExecuteInfo.hProcess, lExitCode)
    DoEvents
    'iCount = iCount + 1
    'Application.StatusBar = Str(iCount) + " iteration waited"
Loop While lExitCode = STILL_ACTIVE
bShellAndWait = True
Exit Function

ErrorHandler:
sErrMsg = Err.Description
bShellAndWait = False
End Function

Answer 1

Use way recommended by Microsoft.

MSDN article "Determine When a Shelled Process Ends" recommends approach through different API call and I can confirm it is working reliably. I'm posting code module (adopted from code in the article) here.

The following VBA module uses API call CreateProcessA(), waits for application to finish and returns ERRORLEVEL code as result:

Option Explicit

Private Type STARTUPINFO
  cb As Long
  lpReserved As String
  lpDesktop As String
  lpTitle As String
  dwX As Long
  dwY As Long
  dwXSize As Long
  dwYSize As Long
  dwXCountChars As Long
  dwYCountChars As Long
  dwFillAttribute As Long
  dwFlags As Long
  wShowWindow As Integer
  cbReserved2 As Integer
  lpReserved2 As Long
  hStdInput As Long
  hStdOutput As Long
  hStdError As Long
End Type

Private Type PROCESS_INFORMATION
  hProcess As Long
  hThread As Long
  dwProcessID As Long
  dwThreadID As Long
End Type

Private Declare Function WaitForSingleObject Lib "kernel32" (ByVal _
  hHandle As Long, ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function CreateProcessA Lib "kernel32" (ByVal _
  lpApplicationName As String, ByVal lpCommandLine As String, ByVal _
  lpProcessAttributes As Long, ByVal lpThreadAttributes As Long, _
  ByVal bInheritHandles As Long, ByVal dwCreationFlags As Long, _
  ByVal lpEnvironment As Long, ByVal lpCurrentDirectory As String, _
  lpStartupInfo As STARTUPINFO, lpProcessInformation As _
  PROCESS_INFORMATION) As Long

Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" _
  (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" _
  (ByVal hProcess As Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long

Private Const NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS = &H20&
Private Const INFINITE = -1&

Public Function ExecCmd(CommandLine As String) As Long
  Dim proc As PROCESS_INFORMATION
  Dim Start As STARTUPINFO
  Dim ret As Long

  ' Initialize the STARTUPINFO structure:
  Start.cb = Len(Start)

  ' Start the shelled application:
  ret& = CreateProcessA(vbNullString, CommandLine, 0&, 0&, 1&, _
     NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, 0&, vbNullString, Start, proc)

  ' Wait for the shelled application to finish:
     ret& = WaitForSingleObject(proc.hProcess, INFINITE)
     Call GetExitCodeProcess(proc.hProcess, ret&)
     Call CloseHandle(proc.hThread)
     Call CloseHandle(proc.hProcess)
     ExecCmd = ret&
End Function

If you store all the code as for example ShellExecModule, then you can call it as

Dim errorLevelValue As Long
errorLevelValue = ShellExecModule.ExecCmd(CommandLine)