Running .exe directly & through Shell VBA returning different results

Question

When I click directly in the .exe file "PrintUsers.exe", the output is correct. But when I do that through VBA using Shell the result is different. It tries to find the text file in another directory. Why? See figure:

SOLUTION: I am now using: GetModuleFileName(NULL, szEXEPath, 2048) instead of GetCurrentDir(buff, FILENAME_MAX);

Answer 1

SOLUTION: I am now using: GetModuleFileName(NULL, szEXEPath, 2048) instead of GetCurrentDir(buff, FILENAME_MAX);

Answer 2

It appears that PrintUsers.exe expects to find the file doNotEdit.txt in the current directory.

The best solution is to change that program to look for the file in the same directory as the program itself is located but, if that is not possible, get Excel to change the current directory before running the program, i.e. insert

ChDir ActiveWorkbook.Path

prior to invoking Shell.

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Also, as Yahya Hussein mentioned in a comment, spaces inside paths can cause issues. There aren't any in your specific situation but, to ensure you don't have problems in future, consider using something like

myFile = """" & ActiveWorkbook.Path & "\PrintUsers.exe"""
ChDir ActiveWorkbook.Path
Shell myFile, vbNormalFocus