Execute a windows program from an anchor tag

From: gf (gfraley5_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 02/19/04 

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 21:11:03 GMT

I believe I am close but I have spent several hours investigating this and
can't understand why it won't work. I have tried exec, system, and settled
on popen from reading various notes on the subject. I am wanting to launch
a file editor when I click on a link. This is strictly an internal
application so I don't need to worry about escaping shell/args. This is
what seems as if it should work, however it doesn't. This is on XP, latest
Apache 1.3.29 and PHP. The logic makes it into the "if" test and the file
exists. Thanks.

 if (chdir("C:\\Program Files\\TextPad 4")) {
  $cmd = "start \"textpad.exe\" x:\\web\\program.php";
  pclose(popen($cmd, "r"));
 }