How does one run PHP scripts in 'silent mode' ???

Hi all, I need to know how to run a php script without it popping open a browser window. $cmd = 'start http://www.somedomain.com/somedir/somefile.php &' exec( $cmd ); I have tried using exec & system with '&' at the end of the command but that does not seem to work. It always opens a browser window even though the script has no echo/print statements in it. Any advice would be appreciated Thanks Keith