Weird behaviour with Runtime.getRuntime.exec() attempting to start IE

Question

I have developed a sample scheduler that it a web page the user fill in and then create a process schedule by the Timer class. The process starts IE in order to automate data entry normally done by a user. The Java code run well but IE when start from the p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec() class freeze. Is anyone can tell if IE require special setting to run in background?
Here the Java code but once again it work well but IE freeze and cause the forked process to hang.
// The schedule task
public void scheduleTask(Object o) throws ApplicationException {
ScheduleBean sb = (ScheduleBean)o;
try {
Timer timer = new Timer(true);
RunReslotting rr = new RunReslotting();
timer.schedule(rr, sb.getSchedulingDate());
catch(IllegalArgumentException iae) {
throw new ApplicationException(iae.getMessage());
catch(IllegalStateException ise) {
throw new ApplicationException(ise.getMessage());
public class RunReslotting extends TimerTask {
protected RunReslotting() {
public void run() {
String[] cmdLineParam = transportProfile(2);
cmdLineParam[0] = "location=" + wr.getLocation();
cmdLineParam[1] = "loc_class=" + wr.getNewStrategy();
forkProcess("runie.bat", cmdLineParam);
private String[] transportProfile(int startAt) {
envProf = System.getenv();
profCmd = new String[envProf.size() + startAt];
itr = envProf.entrySet().iterator();
int i = startAt;
while (itr.hasNext()) {
entry = (Map.Entry)itr.next();
profCmd[i] = (String)entry.getKey() + "=" + (String)entry.getValue();
i++;
return profCmd;
private void forkProcess(String processName, String[] osParam) throws ApplicationException {
// Lance un nouveau process
p = null;
int i=0;
try {
p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(processName, osParam);
// Vide les buffers du process pour eviter de geler
mcError = new MessageCatcher(p.getErrorStream());
mcOutput = new MessageCatcher(p.getInputStream());
mcError.start();
mcOutput.start();
i = p.waitFor();
if ( (i != 0) || (mcError.getMessage() != null) || (mcOutput.getMessage() != null) ) {
System.err.println("*** Process failed RC:" + i + " *** ");
if (mcOutput.getMessage() != null) {
System.err.println("Output messages: " + mcOutput.getMessage());
if (mcError.getMessage() != null) {
System.err.println("Error messages: " + mcError.getMessage());
throw new ApplicationException("*** Process failed *** ");
catch(IOException ioe) {
throw new ApplicationException(ioe.getMessage());
catch(InterruptedException ie) {
throw new ApplicationException(ie.getMessage());
Any suggestion will be appreciate. I�m working on that scheduler for a while and i'm desperate
Thanks
Francis

Answer 1

This starts IE for me, no problem
String[] cmd = {"C:\\Program Files\\Internet Explorer\\iexplore.exe"};
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);