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

nah... seems to be just a desire to automate the opening of things when he
triggers the first one...

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

that's close... real close...

you "call a.bat" if you want to return from a.bat to
current.bat... that's the only time you call in a .bat... if you don't call
a.bat, it won't return from a.bat to current.bat

test it out!

=== snip a.bat ===
{at}echo off
echo this is a.bat
=== snip ===

=== snip current.bat ===
{at}echo off
echo this is current.bat
call a.bat
echo back from a.bat
echo.
echo this is current.bat
a.bat
echo back from a.bat
=== snip ===

you'll notice there is only one call to a.bat... the second one is a direct
executeion... the output should be as follows...

  this is current.bat
  this is a.bat
  back from a.bat

  this is current.bat
  this is a.bat

;)

)\/(ark