Excel VBA Run External Program

In this article, you will learn various methods to run an external program from excel by using VBA 

Method 01: Run External Program by Using Shell Function

You can run any external program using the shell function in Excel VBA. 

The syntax of the shell function 

Where PathName(string) is the path of the program to be opened or run.

And the second parameter is the optional parameter, which indicates window style.

To know more about Shell function you can spend some time on the Microsoft Excel Documentation

Let’s jump to our main topic.

You can run any external program from Excel by using the following VBA code

Sub Run_External_Program1()
    ' Run the command
        VBA.shell "POWERPNT"
End Sub

Result:  After running the code by pressing F5, the PowerPoint app will open.

Note: 

1. If you pass the wrong name of the program the VBA code will return a runtime error.
2. Please check the following references before running the code

Following VBA codes will give the same output

Code 1: You can get the same output by inserting the program path instead of the program name  

Sub Run_External_Program2()
    ' Replace the path and arguments with the ones for the program you want to run
    Dim Program_path As String
    Program_path = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\POWERPNT.EXE"

    ' Run the command
    shell Program_path
End Sub

Code 2:  

Sub Run_External_Program3()
    ' Replace the path and arguments with the ones for the program you want to run
    Dim Program_path As String
    Program_path = Chr(34) & "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\POWERPNT.EXE" & Chr(34)
    ' Create a new instance of the WshShell object
    Dim shell As Object
    Set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

    ' Run the command
    shell.Run Program_path
End Sub

Method 02: Run External Program by CreateObject Method

You also can run an external program using the CreateObject method in Excel VBA

Sub Run_External_Program4()
    ' Create a new instance of the program you want to run
    Dim app As Object
    Set app = CreateObject("Powerpoint.Application")

    ' Show the program's user interface
    app.Visible = True
End Sub