[dlmgg]

Hello,

I work with a software that sends data through Excel. In order for it to work, you need to be able to run Excel from any directory from the command prompt. I have added it to the system path and rebooted with no luck. I also ran a quick test and placed it into system32 to see if that made a difference. They are still not able to start it from anywhere. Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Dawn

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Hi there!

In order to do this, you must change the command prompt to the directory that Excel is in. In my case, this is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office. To change the directory, type:

cd c:\program files\microsoft office\office

It doesn't matter if you use caps or not

Once you are in that directory, you can just type "Excel.exe" (without the quotes) and Excel will open.

Hope this helps!

[jt1990]

Hi there!

In order to do this, you must change the command prompt to the directory that Excel is in. In my case, this is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office. To change the directory, type:

cd c:\program files\microsoft office\office

It doesn't matter if you use caps or not

Once you are in that directory, you can just type "Excel.exe" (without the quotes) and Excel will open.

Hope this helps!

[dlmgg]

Thanks, actually I know I can do that in the directory. What I'm trying to do is be able to start it from any directory. Normally, if you place this in the PATH variable, you can do this but for some reason it will not work for me. For our software to work, I need to be able to start up Excel from anywhere or the software won't find it and it will generate an error message.

Thanks again

Edited by dlmgg, 13 November 2008 - 02:04 PM.

[jt1990]

Hmm... I don't know that there is a way to start a program while not in it's directory...Lemme do some research on this...

[dlmgg]

This may be a better explanation:

When a command is issued in Command Prompt, the computer first looks in the current folder for an executable file with the same name and an extension like .exe, .com or .bat. If it doesn't find one there, it then searches in other specified folders. The folders searched, and the order in which they are searched, can be controlled by the path command. For example, the command:

set path=c:\;c:\windows;c:\tools

this means if I type a command (one that is not a standard DOS or Command Prompt command, that is), Command Prompt will first search the root folder (that is, c:\),then the c:\windows folder, and finally the c:\tools folder until it finds an executable program with the same name as my command.

The problem is, it isn't searching those folders in the path. As a test I moved a copy of Excel.exe to the system32 directory and had the same problem.

[dsenette]

well for an environmental variable to work in the command prompt you have to enclose it in % signs....so from the run command you can just do excel (if that's what your variable is named) but if you open up a command prompt you have to do %excel% ...so if your program doesn't issue the command in % signs it's not going to work

[dlmgg]

That's strange, I don't need to add the % on my in house XP machine. Once I verify the PATH var is setup properly, I can drop to the command prompt and from any directory I type excel.exe and off she goes.

[dsenette]

well on mine i can't get the excel variable i made to run from CMD without the % signs....

[dsenette]

actually i take that back....i think i see where you're going...you're not making a new variable you're adding to the path

i put C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\ in the path variable (separated from the rest with a ; ) and i can now type excel.exe into any command window and it'll find it

[dlmgg]

Yes, that is exactly what I'm doing and telling my client to do BUT he can't get it to work on his machine and several others.

[dsenette]

....have you been able to verify that the client is actually doing it correctly? can you get a screenshot or something?

[dlmgg]

I logged on earlier today and it looked right at a quick glance but I did email him earlier for a screen capture. Waiting to hear back from him.

[webdude]

Hey if you want to run a command from anywhere try this

@echo off //This is optional if you dont want to see the caommands running (delete this later)

cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11 // (delete this later) this goes to the file location (put the directory the exe program is in in here)
exel.exe // (delete this later) now run the .exe program here

pause //(delete this later) this is if you want to check it out to see if it worked after it ran