C / C++ / MFC

1. exec()
   
2. system()
   
3. ShellExecute()
   
4. CreateProcess()
   

void CMyView::OnSetActive(bool m_bActivate)
{
if (m_bActivate)
{
CComboBox* pCombo = &((CMainFrame*)(AfxGetApp()->m_pMainWnd))->m_ComboBox ; // get pointer to combo from mainframe object
pCombo->ResetContent() ;
// add the items here...
}
}

MyPopup->Item 1
         Item 2
         ...

CMenu menu ;
CMenu *pPopup ;
CPoint point ;
int item_selected ;

GetCursorPos(&point) ;

menu.LoadMenu(IDR_MENU_RESOURCE_ID) ;
pPopup = menu.GetSubMenu(0) ; // you need this or the popup does not work properly
item_selected = ::TrackPopupMenuEx(pPopup->m_hMenu, TPM_RETURNCMD | TPM_NONOTIFY, point.x, point.y, m_hWnd, NULL) ;

switch (item_Selected)
{
case ID_MENU_ITEM1 :
 ...
 break ;
 // etc
}

CDC dc ;

dc.Attach(::GetDC(NULL)) ;

... drawing code

dc.ReleaseDC() ;

GetParemtFrame()->ShowWindow(SW_SHOWMAXIMISED);

• If you don't have any a priori idea about the exceptions the worker thread can throw, then there's little you can do except perhaps returning 0 as "everything OK" and some other code for "some exception thrown".
  
• If the exceptions are derived from C++ std::exception, which provide a description with method what(), you can store this message in some global table and return a pointer to it.
  
• If the exceptions are copyable, you can store the exception objet itself in a table an return a pointer to it. Please note that this requires that the exceptions be of an exact known type, as derived types objects are not handled correctly (they're sliced).
  
• Some other ad hoc mechanism. You name it.