How to Find Out If Executable Is Running in VB Develop Shell

- Microsoft Visual Basic programming system for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

If a Visual Basic application needs to know if it is running in the Visual Basic development shell, the application can call the Windows API ModuleFileName function to find out what its module name is. If the ModuleFileName function returns VB.EXE, it is running in the Visual Basic development shell.

MORE INFORMATION

The following example shows how to find out if a program is running interpreted within the Visual Basic development shell as opposed to running as a compiled executable:

Step-by-Step Example

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.

2. Add the following code to the general declarations section of Form1:

      ' Enter each of the following Declare statements as one, single line:
      Declare Function GetModuleFileName Lib "Kernel"
         (ByVal hModule As Integer, ByVal lpFilename As String,
         ByVal nSize As Integer) As Integer
      Declare Function GetWindowWord Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd As Integer,
         ByVal nIndex As Integer) As Integer
   
      Const GWW_HINSTANCE = (-6)
   
   

3. Add the following code to the Form_Load event of Form1:

      Sub Form_Load ()
         Dim ModuleName As String
         Dim FileName As String
         Dim hInst, ret As Integer
         ModuleName = String$(128, Chr$(0))
         ' Get the hInstance application:
         hInst = GetWindowWord(Me.hWnd, GWW_HINSTANCE)
         ' Get the ModuleFileName:
         ' Enter the following two lines as one, single line:
         ModuleName = Left$(ModuleName,
            GetModuleFileName(hInst, ModuleName, Len(ModuleName)))
         If (Len(ModuleName)) > 0 Then
         ' Get the "." in the file name. Then go back three characters.
         ' FileName should = \VB.EXE, so check for the backslash (\)
         ' because FileName could be GVB.EXE, which isn't the
         ' VB executable name:
            FileName = Mid$(ModuleName, InStr(ModuleName, ".") - 3)
            If FileName = "\VB.EXE" Then
               MsgBox "In VB development Shell"
            Else
               MsgBox "Not in VB development Shell"
            End If
         End If
      End Sub
   
   

4. Run the program.