AppActivate statement acts erratically

[poolhall]

I use Excel 2007 and Vista 64bit, if it matters.

When I use AppActivate statement, it acts erratically. For some applications it doesn't work at all, for some it works in 60% of the time, and for others it works perfectly.

For example, I have this code which saves a screenshot as an image:

Sub GetRating()
Dim RetVal
    With Sheets("Rating")
        .Columns("B:M").EntireColumn.AutoFit
        .Range("A1:N32").Copy
    End With
'RetVal = Shell("C:\Windows\system32\mspaint.exe", vbMaximizedFocus)
RetVal = Shell("C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView\i_view32.exe", 1)
'AppActivate "Untitled - Paint" '<--- this doesn't work
AppActivate "IrfanView" '<---- this works perfectly
Application.SendKeys ("^v"), True
Application.SendKeys ("s"), True
Application.SendKeys ("C:\Users\AccountName\Documents\Totalizator\" & ThisWorkbook.Name), True
Application.SendKeys ("~")
End Sub

So, AppActivate "IrfanView" works fine at all times. AppActivate "Paint" doesn't want to work at all whatever I do, e.g. change "Paint" for "Untitled - Paint", "mspaint", AppActivate RetVal, AppActivate Application.Caption, nothing works!

And I have another piece of code where I use AppActivate "FireFox" statements, and this works from about 50 to 60% of the time.

This really drives me crazy. Do you have any suggestion?

 

[westconn1]

as appactivate works with the window title which can be changed in many instances it might be safer /more reliable, to use the findwindow API

 

[poolhall]

thanks westconn1!