Applescript get list of running apps? - macos

Question

Applescript newbie question again :) I am trying to create a small applescript that will allow me to select multiple items from a list of currently running applications and then quit those selected apps. Something like this works but rather than having to click on each dialog it would be much easier to chose from a list.
tell application "System Events"
repeat with p in every process
if background only of p is false then
display dialog "Would you like to quit " & name of p & "?" as string
end if
end repeat
end tell
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

Answer 1

Try this:
tell application "System Events"
set listOfProcesses to (name of every process where background only is false)
tell me to set selectedProcesses to choose from list listOfProcesses with multiple selections allowed
end tell
--The variable `selectedProcesses` will contain the list of selected items.
repeat with processName in selectedProcesses
do shell script "Killall " & quoted form of processName
end repeat

Answer 2

tell application "System Events"
set processList to get the name of every process whose background only is false
set processNameList to choose from list processList with prompt "Select process to quit" with multiple selections allowed
if the result is not false then
repeat with processName in processNameList
do shell script "Killall " & quoted form of processName
end repeat
end if
end tell

Answer 3

you can use this script which is much simpler
tell application "Finder"
get the name of every process whose visible is true
end tell

Answer 4

You can try this
tell application "System Events"
set AppName to name of every process whose background only is false
choose from list AppName OK button name "Ok" cancel button name "Cancel"
end

Answer 5

& (name of every process whose (name is "AppName") can be added to Michele Percich's and Parag Bafna's solutions to include specific menu bar applications by name.
tell application processName to quit can be used instead of do shell script "Killall " & quoted form of processName.
tell application "System Events"
set processList to ¬
(name of every process where background only is false) & ¬
(name of every process whose ¬
(name is "AppName") or ¬
(name is "AnotherAppName"))
tell me to set selectedProcesses to choose from list processList with prompt "Select process(es) to quit:" with multiple selections allowed
end tell
if the result is not false then
repeat with processName in selectedProcesses
tell application processName to quit
end repeat
end if

Answer 6

I wrote this following AppleScript code a few years back. I consider it to be a “Must Have” because I use it almost every single day.
This code will generate a list of Visible and Hidden application processes, allowing multiple items to be selected to kill their processes. The first items in the list will be visible application processes (not sorted alphabetically), then an empty list item (used to separate the visible from the hidden processes), and the remaining list items will be the hidden application processes (sorted alphabetically)
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
property appsToKill : missing value
property NSArray : a reference to current application's NSArray
listAllAppProcesses()
activate
set killApp to (choose from list ¬
appsToKill with title "Choose The App To Kill" with prompt ¬
"Choose The App/Apps To Kill" & linefeed & linefeed ¬
& "The Empty List Item Separates The Visible From The Hidden Applications" OK button name ¬
"OK" cancel button name "CANCEL" with multiple selections allowed)
set pidList to {}
if killApp is not false then
tell application "System Events"
repeat with i from 1 to count of killApp
set thisItem to item i of killApp
tell application process thisItem
set thePID to unix id
set end of pidList to thePID
end tell
end repeat
end tell
else
return
end if
set text item delimiters to space
do shell script ({"kill -9", pidList} as text)
on listAllAppProcesses()
tell application "System Events"
set visibleAppsToKill to name of every application process ¬
where visible is true
set invisibleAppsToKill to name of every application process ¬
where visible is false
set aList to ((NSArray's arrayWithArray:invisibleAppsToKill)'s ¬
sortedArrayUsingSelector:"caseInsensitiveCompare:") as list
set appsToKill to visibleAppsToKill & "" & aList
end tell
end listAllAppProcesses

Answer 7

If you want it from Terminal, you can use a simple script like this quit.rb

Answer 8

The following example AppleScript code is pretty straight forward and will gracefully quit the selected application(s), providing the selected application(s) is (are) in a stable state:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
set appList to the name of ¬
every process whose visible is true
set quitAppList to ¬
choose from list appList ¬
with multiple selections allowed
repeat with thisApp in quitAppList
quit application thisApp
end repeat
When I present a list to choose from, I prefer to have it in alphabetical order and to that end I use a handler to first sort the list before presenting it:
on SortList(thisList)
set indexList to {}
set sortedList to {}
set theCount to (count thisList)
repeat theCount times
set lowItem to ""
repeat with i from 1 to theCount
if i is not in the indexList then
set thisItem to item i of thisList as text
if lowItem is "" then
set lowItem to thisItem
set lowItemIndex to i
else if thisItem comes before lowItem then
set lowItem to thisItem
set lowItemIndex to i
end if
end if
end repeat
set end of sortedList to lowItem
set end of indexList to lowItemIndex
end repeat
return the sortedList
end SortList
To use this with the first block of code presented I typically add handlers at the bottom of my code and then to use it, add the following example AppleScript code between the tell application "Finder" to ¬ and set quitAppList to ¬ statements:
set appList to SortList(appList)
Note: I acquired this particular handler somewhere on the Internet too many years ago to remember and unfortunately lost who to credit it to. My apologies to whomever you are.