pass multiple items to a command line

**marcwords** · 03-26-2013, 04:37 PM

Hello all,

This is my first post in this forum. I'm relatively new to VBA and coding in general. I found a great Command Line function over at VBA Express
I made a few changes, because I have no need for the Input Box (I'm working on an automation project and would like to limit the amount of user interaction.)
This is what I did to change the Test Subroutine:

Public Sub TestCommandLine()
    Const lngCancelled_c As Long = 0
    Dim strCmd As String
     strCmd = "runas /user:<username>@DOMAIN " & Chr(34) & "C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe" & Chr(34)

'    strCmd = VBA.InputBox("Enter DOS Command:", "Enter Command", "dir")
'    If VBA.LenB(strCmd) = lngCancelled_c Then
'        Exit Sub
'    End If
    CommandLine strCmd, True
    
End Sub

When this code runs, the command prompt stays up, requesting a password. Ideally, what I would like to do is keep the username, domain, and passwords as variables in a spreadsheet, and pass these through to cmd as part of this function.

Is there any way to continue to interact with the command window using the Command Line function?
I feel like I may be barking up the wrong tree.
Full disclosure: running the calculator is not my end goal here. Initially I plan to use this function for RegAsm.exe to register an application as a COM object. That being said, it would be incredibly useful to be able to use the command prompt and continue to interact with it via excel VBA script (even outside of trying to get around the Windows UAC stuff.)
So...
Is there a way to change the CommandLine function to get what I want? Should I do something completely different? Or is it just not possible to do what I want to do in the first place?

Thanks in advance!

**JBeaucaire** · 03-27-2013, 01:57 AM

My best suggestion is.... if you must create strings and commands within VBA that must then be run in command shell, use VBA to create a .bat file that holds all the commands and then use your shell method to execute the bat file, then delete the bat.

**marcwords** · 04-01-2013, 02:54 PM

As a matter of fact, I have the batch files written that accomplish the COM object registration.
However, my end-goal is to have a fully automated process. In order to run those .bat files, I have to right-click and run as admin due to the W7user account controls.
I don't really care if regasm.exe is run through the batch files after being called from a VBA script in excel, or if it is done through the VBA script itself. But W7 absolutely cares that the user running regasm.exe is an administrator.
I guess that the gordian knot solution would be to run excel as admin, but passing more than one string to the cmd window seems like a feat that could easily be accomplished via VBA.

**JBeaucaire** · 04-01-2013, 03:30 PM

Some Googling uncovered this suggestion:

1) Make a batch file in any editor with a specific name
2) Create a shortcut to it
3) Right-click on the shortcut and select Properties->Shortcut tab -> Advanced
4) Click Run as administrator.

Execute it from the shortcut and the bat file will be run as Administrator. Now use your VBA to edit the original bat file as needed, then use the shell to execute it, but execute from the shortcut.