I have absolutely no experience writing Batch files but I learnt how to open a program using the: START /MAX IEXPLORER.exe I want to open 5 applications which I can do successfully but the trouble is I can't control when the apps open or in what order. Could I use a delay of 5 seconds for instance in order to give each application time to start. What is the best way to get the apps to open in the correct order. Thanks in advance, Chris

Hi Chris, I guess what you mean by "in the right order" is that they all get the cue to start at nearly the same time, but some take much longer than others. [A monster like winword takes longer than EDIT.] You can script in a delay. ::== Chris.bat start winword.exe ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 start edit.exe :: and so on down the line :: DONE The last number in the ping line is the delay in ms, so in this case, 5 seconds. If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2