i know it has to do with something where the gui is waiting for a response or something. is there a way around this? i use this when copying large directories which works well RunWait(@AutoItExe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteLine "Exit(DirRemove(''' & $target_path & ''', 1 ))"') i tried using the same thing for the listview sort but it didnt work. i think i have the quotes all set in correclty... RunWait(@AutoItExe & ' /AutoIt3ExecuteLine "Exit(_GUICtrlListView_SortItems(''