Exec() in Windows NT

I posted a question earlier regarding this topic, and after investigating still further, the evidence seems to indicate that the output is not returned by exec() due to the configuration of the Internet Information Server. When I run my PHP scripts from the DOS prompt, it works as expected, but when I access the same scripts (through the same PHP CGI program), the files no longer send output. I am trying to retrieve some configuration data from another application. In order to handle the changes in configuration file's format, they have provided an executable that returns requested values by outputing them to the screen. In Linux, this works great since I can use the exec command to retrieve the output and populate my variables. In Windows, I have discovered, it does not, because no output is generated by programs executed by the exec() function. However, I have found an interesting work-around (which I despise) in that I can call another executable via the exec command that then calls this configuration application with a redirect to a file. This file can then be read by PHP to get the data... extremely clunky. Is there a way to configure IIS to allow executables to generate output when called from PHP? Or is this a problem with PHP-win32? Or, if all else fails, does anyone have any other more clever ideas for getting around this problem? Matthew Aznoe Fuzz Technologies maznoe@fuzztech.com