Shell Command

Launches file extension exe is executable programs from within Visual Studio.
Tools.Shell [/command] [/output] [/dir:folder] path [args]
Arguments
path
Required. The path and file extension exe name of the file extension exe to execute or the document to open. A full path is required if the specified file is not in one of the directories in the PATH environment variable.
args
Optional. Any arguments to pass to the invoked program
Switches
commandwindow [or] /command [or] /c [or] /cmd
Optional. Specifies that the output for the file extension exe, executable is displayed in the Command window.
/dir:folder [or] /d: folder
Optional. Specifies the working directory to be set when the program is run.
/outputwindow [or] /output [or] /out [or] /o
Optional. Specifies that the output for the executable is displayed in the Output window
Remarks
The /dir /o /c switches must be specified immediately after Tools.Shell. Anything specified after the name of the file extension exe or executable is passed to it as command line arguments.
The predefined alias Shell can be used in place of Tools.Shell.
Caution:

If the path argument supplies the directory path as well as the file name, you should enclose the entire pathname in literal quotes ("""), as in the following:
Tools.Shell """C:\Program Files\[file extension exe]""" -executable file or file extension exe.

Each set of three double quotes (""") is interpreted by the Shell processor as a single double quote character. Thus, the preceding example actually passes the following path string to the Shell command

"C:\Program Files\[file extension exe]

Caution :
If you do not enclose the path string in literal quotes ("""), Windows will use only the portion of the string up to the first space. For example, if the path string above were not quoted properly, Windows would look for a file named "Program" located in the C:\ root directory. If a C:\Program.exe executable file were actually available, even one installed by illicit tampering, Windows would attempt to execute that program in place of the desired "c:\Program Files\SomeFile.exe" program.

Example :
The following command uses xcopy.exe to copy the file MyText.txt into the Text folder. The output from xcopy.exe is displayed in both the Command Window and the Output window.

>Tools.Shell /o /c xcopy.exe c:\MyText.txt c:\Text\MyText.txt