Output from other processes

Hi all, I am just starting out in VB, and enjoying it a lot... but I don't have any documentation at all to work with, so I thought I would throw a couple of Qs in here and I am kind of hoping they will be simple for someone who knows here...

anyways, I am making a process manager. I have a variety of things.. perl scripts, some executables, a couple batch files... they all spit output either to a text file OR to the screen if they are run normally.
is there a way of displaying all the output they give (in general error messages), REAL TIME so that when I execute them inside of VB I see the errors generated as they are found, just as if they are being displayed to screen?

also, in order to do this, please also tell me how to run the file... I understand there's a SHELL command, but I haven't tried it yet, and from what little I have read so far it seems that it would open up a new window, which I don't want. The processes I run are intended to all be in the background.

Thanks!!
Rob