do like what was suggested before:

my $val1=`notepad.exe`;
my $val2=`program2.exe`;
.
.
.
[download]

or put the names of the programs into a txt file and run through it.

***progs.txt****
notepad.exe
paint.exe
.
.
.
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then have a script to do this

open(INPUTFILE, "progs.txt");
while(<INPUTFILE>){
    $val=`print`;
}
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This was not tested but would be where I would start.

--Big Joe