opening a program outside of C++

I need to know how to start a program and get it running outside of my c++ program. I am making a file and need to open it with a different program. I am using dev c++ 4.9.8.0 on Win XP home. I also need to know how you can tell the computer that you have inputed certain keys using c++ and running those keys in the other program. Is it possible or should I just get the user to press the keys himself?

CreateProcess() will do it. It has a crapload of parameters, tho. Either look it up in the MSDN help or try this:

Code:

STARTUPINFO si;
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
memset(&pi, 0, sizeof(pi));
memset(&si, 0, sizeof(si));
si.cb = sizeof(si);
int res = CreateProcess("path+executable.exe -parameters", 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, &si, &pi);

If CreateProcess returns 0 (as in res = 0), then the process creation failed. This is very basic as I only recently figured this out. I'd recommend that you read up on CreateProcess().