Оформил: DeeCo
Автор: http://www.swissdelphicenter.ch

{ 
  This tip allows you to open any document with its 
  associated application (not only exe, com) and wait for it to finish. 
}


 { 
  Dieser Tip ermцglicht es, nicht nur normale Programme, sondern auch Dateien, 
  die mit Programmen geцffnet werden, auszufьhren und darauf zu warten, 
  bis sie beendet sind. 
}

 uses
   Shellapi;

 function StartAssociatedExe(FileName: string; var ErrorCode: Cardinal): Boolean;
 var
   Prg: string;
   ProcessInfo: TProcessInformation;
   StartupInfo: TStartupInfo;
 begin
   SetLength(Prg, MAX_PATH);
   Result := False;
   ErrorCode := FindExecutable(PChar(FileName), nil, PChar(Prg));
   if ErrorCode >= 32 then
   begin
     SetLength(Prg, StrLen(PChar(Prg)));
     FillChar(StartupInfo, SizeOf(TStartupInfo), 0);
     with StartupInfo do
     begin
       cb := SizeOf(TStartupInfo);
       wShowWindow := SW_SHOW;
     end;
     if CreateProcess(PChar(Prg), PChar(Format('%s %s', [Prg, FileName])),
       nil, nil, False, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, nil, nil, StartupInfo, ProcessInfo) then
     begin
       WaitForSingleObject(ProcessInfo.hProcess, INFINITE);
       GetExitCodeProcess(ProcessInfo.hProcess, ErrorCode);
       CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hProcess);
       CloseHandle(ProcessInfo.hThread);
       Result := True;
     end
     else
       ErrorCode := GetLastError;
   end;
 end;

 // Example, Beispiel: 

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
 var
   ErrorCode: Cardinal;
 begin
   StartAssociatedExe('c:\test.doc', ErrorCode);
 end;