prefix somecmd with start /B. This will fire off the process in its own environment, and the parent process will continue without waiting for the child to return.

C:\Documents and Settings\trw>start /?
Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command.

START ["title"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
      [/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMA
+L]
      [/WAIT] [/B] [command/program]
      [parameters]

"title"  Title to display in  window title bar.
path     Starting directory
B        Start application without creating a new window. The
         application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application
         enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt
         the application
I        The new environment will be the original environment passed
         to the cmd.exe and not the current environment.
MIN      Start window minimized
MAX      Start window maximized
SEPARATE Start 16-bit Windows program in separate memory space
SHARED   Start 16-bit Windows program in shared memory space
LOW      Start application in the IDLE priority class
NORMAL   Start application in the NORMAL priority class
HIGH     Start application in the HIGH priority class
REALTIME Start application in the REALTIME priority class

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In reply to Re: Simple Perl "Shell" Script on Windows XP to Run Multiple, Simultaneous Processes in Parallel by trwww
in thread Simple Perl "Shell" Script on Windows XP to Run Multiple, Simultaneous Processes in Parallel by Jim

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