programmatically press an enter key after starting .exe file in Matlab

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There is a way using Java from Matlab, specifically the java.awt.Robot class. See here.

Apparently there are two types of programs, regarding the way they work when called from Matlab with system('...'):

  1. For some programs, Matlab waits until the program has finished before running the next statement. This happens for example with WinRAR (at least in my Windows 7 machine).

  2. For other programs this doesn’t happen, and Matlab proceeds with the next statement right after the external program has been started. An example of this type is explorer (the standard Windows file explorer).

Now, it is possible to return execution to Matlab immediately even for type 1 programs: just add & at the end of the string passed to system. This is standard in Linux Bash shell, and it also works in Windows, as discussed here.

So, you would proceed as follows:

robot = java.awt.Robot;
command = '"C:\Program Files (x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR"'; %// external program; full path
system([command ' &']); %// note: ' &' at the end
pause(5) %// allow some time for the external program to start
robot.keyPress (java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); %// press "enter" key
robot.keyRelease (java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_ENTER); %// release "enter" key

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