Can't get WSCript.Shell object's Run method to work - excel

Question

I set up the following test procedure.
Private Sub TryPDF()
Dim oShell As Object
Dim App As String
Dim SrcPath As String
Dim Fn As String
App = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe "
SrcPath = Environ("UserProfile") & "\Downloads\"
Fn = "20200509_Order_of_08_05_2020.PDF"
Shell App & SrcPath & Fn, vbNormalFocus ' opens the file
Set oShell = CreateObject("WSCript.Shell")
oShell.Run App & SrcPath & Fn, vbNormalFocus, True ' error -2147024894
Set oShell = Nothing
End Sub
The Shell command in the middle works, thereby proving that app and files exist as and where specified. However, I want the Wait property of the WSCript.Shell object and therefore want to open the file using the line oShell.Run App & SrcPath & Fn, vbNormalFocus, True. I have tested it as shown and without some and any parameters, which should just open the Acrobat Reader when totally stripped, and I always get the same error, "Method 'Run' of object 'IWshShell3' failed".
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You have to escape the spaces in your paths (app and file) by surrounding them with double-Quotes, as the command-line uses them as argument separators. That would make
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe
C.\Program a file named Program located on C: and that doesn't exists!
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"
will work as expected on command-line.
For some reasons VBA.Shell can handle the spaces in the apppath, but WScript.Shell can't.
Both will fail on not quoted paths to file, if they contain spaces.
My prefered quoting-style is the Chr(34) function
CommanQuoted = Chr(34) & "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" & Chr(34) & " " & Chr(34)
& "...\Downloads\20200509_Order_of_08_05_2020.PDF" & Chr(34)
as it is far better readable than the also useable double double-quote
CommandQuoted = """C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"" ""...\Downloads\20200509_Order_of_08_05_2020.PDF"""
Or you can create a constant that returns a double quote
Const dquote As String = """"
CommandQuoted = dquote & "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" & dquote & " " & dquote
& "...\Downloads\20200509_Order_of_08_05_2020.PDF" & dquote
Private Sub OpenPDFWithWScripShell()
Dim oShell As Object
Dim AppPathQuoted As String
Dim SrcPathQuoted As String
Dim FileName As String
Dim shellCommand As String
AppPathQuoted = Chr(34) & "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" & Chr(34)
FileName = "20200509_Order_of_08_05_2020.PDF"
SrcPathQuoted = Chr(34) & Environ("UserProfile") & "\Downloads\" & FileName & Chr(34)
shellCommand = AppPathQuoted & " " & SrcPathQuoted
Debug.Print shellCommand
Set oShell = CreateObject("WSCript.Shell")
oShell.Run shellCommand, vbNormalFocus, True
Set oShell = Nothing
End Sub