problem creating a process

[targt123]

I am trying to learn how to create a new process using CreateProcess. I found some code online and it works to start the notepad application:

if(CreateProcess("C:\Windows\notepad.exe"
"example.txt", // Additional application arguments
NULL,
NULL,
FALSE,
CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE,
NULL,
NULL,
&siStartupInfo,
&piProcessInfo) == FALSE) 

However when I try to start some other application, like the internet explorer, it doesn't work:

if(CreateProcess("C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", // Application name
"Home  Partners HealthCare.mht", // Additional application arguments, could be //NULL
NULL,
NULL,
FALSE,
CREATE_DEFAULT_ERROR_MODE,
NULL,
NULL,
&siStartupInfo1,
&piProcessInfo1) == FALSE)
// Could not start application 

Why is it so?
Thanks

[webJose]

1. You are using ANSI strings. You MUST use CreateProcessA.
2. If CreateProcessA() returns FALSE you can then call GetLastError() and FormatMessage() to find out why it failed.

[targt123]

Thanks webJose. I found that I needed double slashes for it to work:
C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe
instead of single slashes
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

Why is it designed so?

[webJose]

In C++, the backslash is the escape character. It is used to insert non-printable characters in string literals, such as the carriage return or the line feed characters. Therefore, you cannot insert a single backslash into a string literal by simply using a single backslash, ergo the two backslashes that become one.

[modoran]

Always use NULL as first argument and use PathQuoteSpaces() API exported from shlwapi.dll to format second argument of CreateProcess function.