{ There are two documented functions in the Windows API for restarting Windows: ExitWindows(), and ExitWindowsExec(). (See the Windows API help for details on both.) A common misconception is that the Program Manager DDE macro call "[Reload()]" is for restarting Windows; it is not! The call ExitWindows( 0, EW_RESTARTWINDOWS ) is _supposed_ to shut down Windows, then bring it back up. I've had no luck, though, from inside a Delphi app. It just shuts down Windows and gives me a DOS prompt. ExitWindowsExec was built so that you could shut down Windows, execute a DOS app (to replace Windows-critical DLL's, for example), and then bring Windows hack up. I have discovered that you simply need to pass a bad executable name, and ExitWindowsExec performs exactly as ExitWindows was supposed to! For example, the last few lines of an installation application may be: if (MessageDlg( 'The installation was successful! You must now ' + 'restart Windows. Do this now?', mtInformation, [mbYes, mbNo], 0) = mrYes) then begin ExitWindowsExec( BOGUS_EXE, Nil ); end; where BOGUS_EXE is declared something like const BOGUS_EXE = 'zyxwvuts.exe'; -JSRS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This should replace (or be appended to) the tip sheet entry about restarting windows. There is a documentation error (probably due to the bad habits of 'C' programmers) for the ExitWindows() API call... the parameters are reversed! This code DOES WORK... (I've tested it. ;-) ) procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject); begin ExitWindows(EW_RESTARTWINDOWS,0); end;