Closing my own program

[Allen Schoessler]

I have written an application which is loaded on startup by the computer. It is hidden from the user and can only be seen in the Ctrl+Alt+Delete list. Now, if someone downloaded this program and installed it, everything would work fine. But what if they tried to uninstall it? The uninstaller would not be able to delete the EXE, since it is open. So, I need to provide the user with a way to close the program. There are three options:

1. Make them use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to close it.
This is bad.

2. Create a System Tray icon and have an Exit command on that.
This is pretty good, but I don't like System Tray icons because everybody has TONS of them. Why add another?

3. Create an icon in the program group for the program called "Close PersonalSaver."
The user selects this icon and the program closes. The command line would be "C:\PersonalSaver\PersonalSaver.exe /close" I know how to set up command line parameters, but I don't know how to make the program close itself - the other one of it that is running..

Could you make it listen on a port on the local machine?
Then you just another app which send a 'Die' command to it and it gracefully closes down.

This will close an application:

Declare Function ProcessFirst Lib "kernel32" Alias "Process32First" (ByVal hSnapshot As Long, uProcess As PROCESSENTRY32) As Long
Declare Function ProcessNext Lib "kernel32" Alias "Process32Next" (ByVal hSnapshot As Long, uProcess As PROCESSENTRY32) As Long
Declare Function CreateToolhelpSnapshot Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateToolhelp32Snapshot" (ByVal lFlags As Long, lProcessID As Long) As Long
Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long

Type PROCESSENTRY32
    dwSize As Long
    cntUsage As Long
    th32ProcessID As Long
    th32DefaultHeapID As Long
    th32ModuleID As Long
    cntThreads As Long
    th32ParentProcessID As Long
    pcPriClassBase As Long
    dwFlags As Long
    szexeFile As String * MAX_PATH
    End Type


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

Usage:

Call KillApp("C:\myprog\myprog.exe")

Hi Sir:
This is not related to your question, but i am interested in how to run the program at the startup? can you show me please? and also, how can we run without letting the user seen it...
thanks

[oetje]

This reg ket lists programs that are runned at startup.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

[Allen Schoessler]

Thanks a lot, Matthew Gates! After a few tweaks, I got the code to do what I needed.

dragonyian, what exactly do you need? Windows starts applications from three places, the Startup menu, the Registry, and somewhere in one of the Windows INI files. (System.ini or Win.ini, I think).

If you do not want the user to see the application start or know it is starting, use the Registry. The list of applications Windows will run is at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

OR:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

If you want the application to run for only the currently logged in user, use the second location.

If you have a Registry module, you can simply write to one of the those locations, when your program starts, like this:

SetKeyValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", "MyProg", App.Path & "\MyProg.exe"

This is from my Registry module. If you want a Registry module, I can email it to you. Let me know if I can help you any more.

To make your program startup (using the registry):

Private Declare Function RegOpenKeyEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegOpenKeyExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpSubKey As String, ByVal ulOptions As Long, ByVal samDesired As Long, phkResult As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegCloseKey Lib "advapi32.dll" (ByVal hKey As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function RegSetValueEx Lib "advapi32.dll" Alias "RegSetValueExA" (ByVal hKey As Long, ByVal lpValueName As String, ByVal Reserved As Long, ByVal dwType As Long, lpData As Any, ByVal cbData As Long) As Long
Private Const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002
Private Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 0&
Private Const REG_SZ = 1
Private Const KEY_SET_VALUE = &H2

Public Function SetProgramStartup(pProgramName As String, pProgramPath As String) As Boolean
    Dim lKeyHandle As Long
    Dim lRet As Long
    Dim strBuffer As String
    Dim strKey As String
    
    strKey = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"
    lRet = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, strKey, 0, KEY_SET_VALUE, lKeyHandle)
    If lRet = ERROR_SUCCESS Then
      lRet = RegSetValueEx(lKeyHandle, pProgramName, 0, REG_SZ, ByVal pProgramPath, Len(pProgramPath))
      RegCloseKey lKeyHandle
    End If
End Function


Private Sub Command1_Click()
    Call SetProgramStartup("MyEliteProg", "C:\Elite-prog.exe")
End Sub