Here's the rub:

We have a legacy process that involves a DOS bat file opening an Access97 mdb file with command line parameters.

The Access97 database has an autoexec macro (for those not familiar with Access, it's a macro envoked on startup) which does its jobs and then closes Access down using DoCmd.Quit

The problem is that after it closes the mdb file down, an instance of Access remains open. This instance can only be closed using task manager. I need to close the Application.

The solution I am about to suggest to these guys is to use TerminateProcess API call to close this instance.
But where should I use it? A separate tiny VB6 exe? In the Access VBA code itself? Is there an easier solution?