A PM application can use the DDE protocol to cause commands to be executed in another application. Such remote executions are performed by the WM_DDE_EXECUTE transaction.

To execute a remote command, the client application posts to the server a WM_DDE_EXECUTE message containing a pointer to a shared-memory object that contains a DDESTRUCT data structure and a command string.

The server attempts to execute the specified string according to some agreed-upon protocol. If successful, the server posts a positive WM_DDE_ACK message to the client. If unsuccessful, a negative WM_DDE_ACK message is posted.