Managing separate EXE's

Hi,
I am trying to figure out to manage several instances of a VB exe. What I'm trying to do is run several copies of a worker app and have one other app manage load to each of them. Can I use OLE/COM to do this. I tried several times, and was very unhappy with the results.
I created a COM EXE server in VB and then instantiated it with calls to CreateObject. It would appear to run "copies" (it definately was creating threads) of the executable, but the performance was awful. I'm almost positive I was running into that "apartment" threading crap and locking issues. What I really want is to run separate standard exes and pass some simple messages around! How about DDE???

Thanks for any input
Sam

[David S]

How about some kind of com (as in communication) control, such as a sockets control which can send
strings of data between applications, as long as one is set as a server and the others as clients.
I believe with a little engenuity, vb6 has a socket control which will serve you. You could also try
a free socket control called Socketwrench from Catalyst.com
You will need to code error trapping routines for when the client sockets attempt to contact the server
(main form) and for some reason it doesn't answer. Start small, maybe two or three separate apps with
textboxes to transmit and receive data. When you get the hang of it, migrate the working example into
your app.
Good Luck
DAVE