This one is really more of a utility tool, than a programming demonstration.
It launches new copies of Microsoft Outlook Express (OE), overcoming that
application's stubborn insistence on being a single instance. What's cool about
this, from a programming perspective, is that it shows how to call a DLL
function in a file that resides at an unknown location at compile time.
Most API functions reside in DLLs that are on the system path. Outlook
Express supplies msoe.dll, which can be used to start new instances of OE, but
installs it into its own application folder. So the trick is plumbing the
registry for the location of this file, then changing our applications active
directory to OE's, then finally making the call. Kinda slick.
WARNING: Neither Microsoft or I suggest you will be 100% safe
running multiple instances of Outlook Express! Do you understand that? If
you haven't taken all the standard
steps to stabilize OE (such as turning off Background Compaction), you will
be really hosed by running multiple instances of it.
If you've been sent here simply for the tool, and have no interest in
programming, the download below includes an EXE that's been compiled using VB5.
Your computer must already have the VB5 runtime, which is available on the tools
page of this site.
