start windows cmd from php

Hi

I have a php script which should start the wget commandline tool.
I am doing this with this code:

//build the command
$path = $pathtowget . " -o components/com_staticexporter/log.txt -rEk
-P " . $downloadpath . " " . $site . "&";

// execute wget using the backtick operator
`$path`;

The problem is that it doesnt run in the background so the script
executes forever.
Is there a way in windows to start the process in the background ?

So I dont have to wait until its finished ?

Thanx
Hanselmann

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