Running Windows program from within PHP

Jos R 0
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I want to open a Windows program (e.g. notepad.exe) when I click a link on website. I tried using the php commands shell_exec() and exec(), but both will not open the Windows program. This is the code that does not work:

$command = "c:\\windows\\system32\\notepad.exe";
echo shell_exec("$command");

In the past I have been using a similar code for making a backup of a database:

$command = "d:\\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqldump --opt -h $hostname -u $username $db > $backup_file";
echo shell_exec("$command");

This code works as expected (the backup is created).

I suspect that the mysqldump is running in the background while notepad.exe is not. Is there a solution for this issue?

shell-exec exec shell php
1 Answers

PHP normally runs as a service. In this mode, under windows, things are restricted. Since a couple of years ago, not even a console is hooked up. Desktop Interaction is not possible.

Anything launched from a service will have the same restrictions.

Above is from my experience. It is corroborated by @Goat in PHP - Any chance to run GUI program through exec()?

Further

Important

Services cannot directly interact with a user as of Windows Vista. Therefore, the techniques mentioned in the section titled Using an Interactive Service should not be used in new code.

MS Docs on Interactive Services

Rohit Gupta0
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