execute third-party program from .NET

Question

Hello

I am developing a program that at one point needs to generate and open an excel file from a crystal report. It was fairly straight-forward to generate the excel file, but I am having trouble finding anything about initiating the excel-application from my C#.NET code.

Preferably, I'd like to open excel as a stand-alone application on the side rather than incorporating it into the form, though that too is an option. So is there a way to run dos commands from C# or the .NET framework?

So if anyone knows how to do this or at least point me in the right direction, that'd be great.

Thanks,
Fred