Trying to launch some apps from CMD file

Question

I'm trying to write a Windows CMD file (for Windows 7) that will launch four instances of Visual Studio 2010 with four solutions (which make up the project I'm working on right now).

What I've tried is something like this:

@echo off
set DEVENVDIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE
set CURRDIR=%CD%

rem Start solutions 1 through 4
"%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution1\Solution1.sln"
"%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution2\Solution2.sln"
"%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution3\Solution3.sln"
"%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution4\Solution4.sln"

Of course - this will happily launch Solution#1, but then it is blocked and never gets around to start up the other solutions.

So I need something like "execute those four tasks in parallel" - but in Windows CMD script... any takers??

I might also consider PowerShell, if that would make life easier... I would just like to be able to click on a single icon, go grab a coffee, and when I'm back, my four solutions would be open in Visual Studio for me.

Any thoughts, ideas?

Answer 1

Use the START command:

@echo off
set DEVENVDIR=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE
set CURRDIR=%CD%

rem Start solutions 1 through 4 
START "%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution1\Solution1.sln"
START "%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution2\Solution2.sln"
START "%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution3\Solution3.sln"
START "%DEVENVDIR%"\devenv.exe "%CURRDIR%\Solution4\Solution4.sln"