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I have a windows forms based application made by another programmer and I need to add a few command line switches to it's primary output exe so that I can pass arguments like:

program.exe -reinitialise or program.exe -sync

I have found some docs online but all seem to be in C# and are for command line only programs.

This program installs via an .msi and the .exe is only constructed at the end.

So my questions are:

  1. How do I add command line switches to a VB.Net application?

  2. Where/What form do I add the parser to so that the primary output .exe accepts the args?

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Similar to C/C#, you get them as an array. Different from C/C#, you obtain them as a read-only property from the application itself (My.Application.CommandlineArgs)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z2d603cy(v=vs.80).aspx#Y550

Code sample on that page (for VB) should show you what you need i think...

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5 Comments

But where in the forms application does it go - in the first displayed form? How does the application know it was launched from the command line and not a link?
if it's launched from a link, the link may or may not have passed arguments, so that part isn't relevant.
As far as where to put it...if you look at your project settings, there is a defined class and entry point, which by default is your form1. You can choose to place the code there (and read it in the entry point), you can also create a class module and change the project to use that as your entry point, and load your forms from that. VB is very loose about this, which is convenient at times, but irritating at others.
By making the application know if it was launched from the command line would mean I could stop the program interface loading and just run the procedures in the background (what I want to do) - I have found this: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/stws2269(v=VS.90).aspx but for some reason I get "Statement is not in a valid namespace"
Generlaly, when I do something like this , I use a command argument to tell me to run in batch mode. Sometimes the fact that I have command arguments at all allows me to infer batch mode. It's giving you that error because you did not put it inside one of your program namespaces, or you created a new namespace that is not associated with your program itself. Because it's a method, it belongs inside your primary application class. Here's a link to that error: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5ycdx874(v=vs.80).aspx

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