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status = system(command) calls the operating system to execute the
specified command. The operation waits for the command to finish
execution before returning the exit status of the command to the
status variable.
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To execute the operating system command in the background, include
the trailing character, &, in the command argument (for example,
'notepad &' on a Windows platform, or 'emacs &' on UNIX®). The exit
status is immediately returned to the status variable.
 
And like Ben says Isprocess is in the File Exchange
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