Unable to kill process using ExitProcess

[mhuibers]

We want to kill a process but it won't work with the ExitProcess API call.

It 'dowsn't work because when we run that code VB is killed instead of the process we wan to be killed.

[Matthew Gates]

Try this:

Private Declare Function ProcessFirst _
Lib "kernel32" Alias "Process32First" (ByVal hSnapshot _
As Long, uProcess As PROCESSENTRY32) As Long

Private Declare Function ProcessNext Lib "kernel32" _
Alias "Process32Next" (ByVal hSnapshot As Long, _
uProcess As PROCESSENTRY32) As Long

Private Declare Function CreateToolhelpSnapshot _
Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateToolhelp32Snapshot" (ByVal _
lFlags As Long, lProcessID As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal hObject As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle _
As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function TerminateProcess _
Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal _
uExitCode As Long) As Long


Private 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


Private Const MAX_PATH = 260


Private 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

[mhuibers]

I already tried your code but it does not work.
Because we get an error like DDL ENTRY POINT......CreateToolhelpSnapshot . etc etc,

What we try to do is this: ...out application uses WINWORD 2000 but sometimes Word is still in memory and makes the system hang. In that particular we want to kill the process by using API calls, so we thought that the ExitProcess API should do the trick. The only thing is that we cannot can get it to work

Michiel

PS we use a winNT 4.0 SP 6 system

[Yonatan]

The CreateToolhelp32Snapshot entry point is defined in IMAGEHLP.DLL, not KERNEL32.DLL.

Replace Lib "kernel32" with Lib "imagehlp" in the first Declare statement and try again.

[Matthew Gates]

Originally posted by Yonatan
The CreateToolhelp32Snapshot entry point is defined in IMAGEHLP.DLL, not KERNEL32.DLL.

Replace Lib "kernel32" with Lib "imagehlp" in the first Declare statement and try again.

It's not? Why does the code work on Win98 then?

[Yonatan]

Hmm, oh wait, it's defined in both
But I guess not in NT

[Tygur]

CreateToolhelp32Snapshot doesn't work in Windows NT. It works fine in Windows 95, 98 and 2000, but not Windows NT. I was gonna used it in one of my own programs one time, but I didn't because of that.

Also, the reason why ExitProcess kept closing your program is because that's what it is supposed to do.

If you can find another way of getting the handle to the process, you can use TerminateProcess to close it as it is used in the above code posted by Matthew Gates.