VBScript: how to run a program from vbscript

I always need this one: how do you run a program from within VBScript? For example, you may need to launch notepad or wget from a VBScript. Here is the code to launch notepad:

sub shell(cmd)
    ' Run a command as if you were running from the command line
    dim objShell
    Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )
    objShell.Run(cmd)
    Set objShell = Nothing
end sub

shell "notepad"

Put that in a text file called "run_notepad.vbs", doubleclick it, and notepad will run. This may not seem too useful, but imagine that you use VBScript to run a series of WGETs, for example, based on input from SQL Server.

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UPDATE

I have had a lot of requests for enhancements to this program. The following is the cadillac version. It calls an EXE and asks the user for parameters to pass to the EXE.

 
sub shell(cmd)    
    ' Run a command as if you were running from the command line
    dim objShell
    Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )
    objShell.Run(cmd)
    Set objShell = Nothing
end sub

dim file_name
' Ask the user for a parameter
file_name = inputbox("What file to see?", "File name?", "c:\boot.ini")
if file_name <> "" then
    ' The user gave the parameter.  Open the program
    ' with the value the user gave.
    shell "C:\WINNT\system32\notepad.exe " & file_name
else
    msgbox "User cancelled.", 16, "User cancelled"
end if