Hi mark,
I think that's the point...he's asking about how to do this in a BAT file so 
I assume he's not going to be there to open new windows as he needs them.

I always thought that the 'call' command in batch files was the way to go. 
I'm not sure, but I thought that if you just named a program or bat file from 
within a bat file, then the calling bat file would terminate and the system 
wouldn't return to it after running whatever program was called. I thought 
that the "call progam_name" would cause the system to execute
that program, 
then return to the calling bat file and execute the remainder of the 
commands.

I don't know if that helps, Dan, but it might...

In a message to Dan Ceppa you wrote:

 ml> i honestly don't see how you can do what you are trying to do unless
 ml> switcher has some sort of autoexec capability to fire up the other 
 ml> programs you want 
 ml> to run... then again, i fail to see a need for switcher in the first
 ml> place since you are running in DOS tasks under Win98... the machine 
 ml> i'm currently 
 ml> on has a dozen or more DOS windows open as well as i don't know how
 ml> many windows programs... as i need a DOS window, i just open another 
 ml> one...

-Jon
MFWIC, The HeatSink BBS
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, eh?!

 * SeM. 2.26  * Bizarreness is the essence of the exotic.
--- SemPoint