Obscure puzzle

[terrypin]

I've haven't called this OT as I'm pretty sure the problem is down to some quirk of Paint Shop Pro 8 (PSP8) image editor, but it is certainly an obscure query.

I have a macro (scripting) program called Macro Express Pro and have written hundreds of macros to supplement the functionality of many of my applications.

Reducing my puzzle to basics: If I run a one line macro to launch PSP 8, it duly does so. But instead of immediately then terminating, the macro continues running (doing nothing obvious) for 5-10 minutes. It cannot be stopped, except by closing PSP8 (or forcefully killing Macro Express Pro ). No other macros can be run until that is done.

So I cannot successfully write any macros for PSP8 which include its launch, as they never get processed.

I thought at first it was running indefinitely. But on my last test, after returning from making a coffee, it had terminated. I tried again and ran SysInternals' ProcMon, but amongst the thousands of lines I couldn't see any clues about what might be delaying it for 5-10 minutes.

I tried many other programs (Notepad, Word, Excel, etc) and none of them have this issue, only PSP 8.

I've naturally posted in the Macro Express forum, but users of PSP are as rare there as are Macro Express users here. (Are there any?)

Any thoughts on the underlying cause please?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[LeviFiction]

Don't know the details but if I remember correctly it's something to do with the program not separating itself from the parent thread that spawned it. Of course I can't prove this is what PSP8 is doing. I don't have it installed and it's not guaranteed to work the same way in later versions of Windows.

I'd ask the forums if there is a way to run a program and force it to start its own process. You may have to create a batch file and run that instead of running PSP8 directly. But again, all guess work.

[terrypin]

Thanks, I'll pursue those interesting suggestions.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK