Newbie Question:

Hi,

Ok, I've learned how to launch a program (or open any file) from VB. Now, can anyone tell me how to close programs from VB? If I have the path of the program running, can I close it?

Thanks

Take a look at this thread (Megatron shows how to find a window by it's caption and then close it).

Or close it by knowing the file path of the exe: App List and Kill

You could also Shell out a Process and wait for it to end.

If the title is variable, (i.e Notepad) then you can close it by it's ClassName instead.

Code:

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Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Const WM_CLOSE = &H10
Const WM_DESTROY = &H2

Private Sub Command1_Click()

    'Get the hWnd of the App (by it's ClassName)
    hParent = FindWindow("Notepad", vbNullString)
    'If it's found then close it
    If hParent <> 0 Then
        SendMessage hParent, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0
        SendMessage hParent, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0
    End If
   
End Sub

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Er...Megatron, shouldn't that second WM_CLOSE be WM_DESTROY?

Yes, that's correct. I must have forgot to change it because I copied and pasted the previous line.

Thanks all, but is there some code that can close down an app if I have the file path of the exe? I've looked at the App List and Kill example, but it's kind of confusing to me (I'm a newbie).

I just need code to kill an app (knowing the file path of the exe), I don't need code that lists all the running apps.

Thanks.

Slightly modified version of the KillApp function:

Code:

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Public Function KillApp(myName As String) As Boolean
    Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = 0
    Dim uProcess As PROCESSENTRY32
    Dim rProcessFound As Long
    Dim hSnapshot As Long
    Dim szExename As String
    Dim exitCode As Long
    Dim myProcess As Long
    Dim AppKill As Boolean
    Dim appCount As Integer
    Dim i As Integer
    On Local Error GoTo Finish
    appCount = 0
   
    Const TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS As Long = 2&
   
    uProcess.dwSize = Len(uProcess)
    hSnapshot = CreateToolhelpSnapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0&)
    rProcessFound = ProcessFirst(hSnapshot, uProcess)
   
    Do While rProcessFound
        i = InStr(1, uProcess.szexeFile, Chr(0))
        szExename = LCase$(Left$(uProcess.szexeFile, i - 1))
        If Right$(szExename, Len(myName)) = LCase$(myName) Then
            KillApp = True
            appCount = appCount + 1
            myProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, False, uProcess.th32ProcessID)
            AppKill = TerminateProcess(myProcess, exitCode)
            Call CloseHandle(myProcess)
        End If
        rProcessFound = ProcessNext(hSnapshot, uProcess)
    Loop

    Call CloseHandle(hSnapshot)
Finish:
End Function

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Just call KillApp "c:\myapp\myapp.exe" to kill.

I'm sure this could be trimmed down further, though.