Originally posted by Simon Templer

If you wanted to run an application "hidden", then this can be achieved by taking advantage of the "vbHide" keyword.

Example:
Shell "[whatever]", vbHide
You can use numeric representations in place of 'vbHide', right? I forget what they are, but 0-5 or so, and one means totally hidden, another is minimized, another is maximized with focus, etc...

This kind of example is the main reason I A) Don't use ZoneAlarm and B) Use Eudora. I would like to add that in my search for a TPF-But-Not-TPF replacement firewall that works with my proxy/NAT service, Sygate's firewall is pretty good. I mean, it lets you do everything ZA (free ver) does, but lets you go into the guts with a liberal sprinkling of 'advanced' buttons. Not at advanced as TPF, but certainly a good bridge between ZA and TPF.

Anyway, with Sygate, You could probably tell it that Outlook can only access a certain host, certain port, or within a certain time frame...

That's an idea. Make it ask each time it wants to *SEND* mail to your mailserver... hmmmmm. It would be a lot less annoying than a 'check mail->ask with popup' rule.