List of Running Applications

[Chaoticmass]

This is, again, for my shell replacement for windows. Is there some kind of API calls or method I can use to get the titles of the currently running applications?

Being able to get the Hwnd of an application based on it's title would be helpful too.

And finally, how can I Maximize/Minimize/Close an application assuming I know it's Hwnd?


Thanks.

[Hack]

To get a list of running applications, just do a search on that topic in this forum. This question is asked a lot, and there are lots of examples.

'Here are two ways to close a running application.   
'First, by the full path and Exe name.
Option Explicit
'Originally posted by Evan
'12/08/2001
Private Declare Function TerminateProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, ByVal uExitCode As Long) As Long
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 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 * 6400
End Type
 
Private Function KillAppByName(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
            KillAppByName = 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:
Private Sub Command1_Click()
KillAppByName "C:\Windows\notepad.exe"
End Sub
 
'Next by using the Windows caption
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
 
Private Const WM_CLOSE = &H10
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim CloseIt As Long
CloseIt = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Caption Of Window To Be Closed")
PostMessage CloseIt, WM_CLOSE, CLng(0), CLng(0)
End Sub
 
'This will minimize all Open Windows.    To Minimize just one open window, replace "shell_traywnd" 
'with the Window's caption
 
'Code taken from "Ask The VB Pro", May 1999 Edition of 
'Visual Basic Programs Journal.   Written by Phil Weber
 
Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
 
Private Const WM_COMMAND As Long = &H111
Private Const MIN_ALL As Long = 419
Private Const MIN_ALL_UNDO As Long = 416
 
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Dim DoIt As Long
DoIt = FindWindow("shell_traywnd", vbNullString)
'to minimize them all
Call PostMessage(DoIt, WM_COMMAND, MIN_ALL, 0&)
'to return them all to normal size
Call PostMessage(DoIt, WM_COMMAND, MIN_ALL_UNDO, 0&)
End Sub

[Chaoticmass]

Thanks for the code, and thanks for not flaming me for being such a newbie to this forum.