use Win32::Process;
Win32::Process::Create($processobj, "C:\\foo.exe", "foo -options_here", 0, NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS, ".") || die print Win32::FormatMessage( Win32::GetLastError() );

$processobj->Wait(20000);
$processobj->GetExitCode($return);

##</code><code>##

eval {
    local $SIG{ALRM} = sub {die "alarm";};

    alarm(20);

    $return = `foo -options_here`;

    alarm(0);
  };
  if ($@) {
    if ($@ =~ /alarm/) {
      print "timeout\n";
    }
    else {
      die;
    }
  }