Is it possible to launch several programs at a time in Windows XP?

I mean to launch them with a single command. In Windows 9x it is as simple as writing the commands in a .bat file and executing it, but in Windows XP batch files seem to invoke the commands one by one, hence I see the TV window, close it and see the sound filtering program, close it and see the Creative Mixer (that I launch to open the microphone input, usually closed, from where the sound card gets the sound from the TV card).

I am relatively expert with W9x but I'm a beginner with NT/2000/XP. I have been playing with CMD, /C, /K, &&, CALL and other commands and parameters but without success.

No fine Java tricks, no TCL, no hash tables or databases, just launching several programs in parallel in a multitask and multiprocess environment (winXP). How? Thanks in advance.

[typo edited]

add "start" in front of the program, for example instead of

Code:

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notepad.exe
calc.exe
mspaint.exe

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use

Code:

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start notepad.exe
start calc.exe
start mspaint.exe

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Thanks very much. The START command worked. My problem's solved.

But it had to be in a way like this:

Code:

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C:
cd "C:\Television and DVD\MoreTV"
start MoreTV.exe
cd "C:\Television and DVD\Perfect Audio"
start PerfectAudio.exe
rem The previous name of "PerfectAudio.exe" was "Perfect Audio.exe"
cd "C:\Program archives\Creative\SBLive\SurMix2"
start SurMix2.exe

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START does not accept quoted parameters. The following code opens three "empty" instances of CMD:

Code:

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start "C:\Television and DVD\MoreTV\MoreTV.exe"
start "C:\Television and DVD\Perfect Audio\Perfect Audio.exe"
start "C:\Program archives\Creative\SBLive\SurMix2\SurMix2.exe"

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What a shoddy parser! Couldn't they parse the parameters in an uniform way for all commands? But don't belittle MS! The following was one of my previous attempts to get the three programs launched at a time (it runs them in sequence instead, but the nested quotes are correctly parsed):

Code:

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cmd /c ""C:\Television and DVD\MoreTV\MoreTV.exe"&&"C:\Television and DVD\Perfect Audio\Perfect Audio.exe"&&"C:\Program archives\Creative\SBLive\SurMix2\SurMix2.exe""

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Just a curiosity. Thanks again :) .