End Process from Task Manager using VB 6 Code - vb6

Question

I need to kill an application roughly so I can get phantom subscriber of that application in my database (this can not be produced by closing the application). Manually, if we kill the application from Task Manager, the phantom subscriber will be exist. Now I need to do it automatically in VB 6 code. Help! Thanks.

Answer 1

There are two ways:
Send WM_CLOSE to the target application if it has a window (hidden/visible). Task Manager's "End Task" uses this method. Most of the applications handle WM_CLOSE and terminate gracefully.
Use TerminateProcess API to kill forcefully - Task Manager's "End Process" uses this method. This API forcefully kills the process.
An example can be found here:
VB Helper: HowTo: Terminate a process immediately

Answer 2

Use vb6.0 TaskKill
Private Sub Command1_Click()
Shell "taskkill.exe /f /t /im Application.exe"
End Sub

Answer 3

Call ShellExecute with the TaskKill command
TASKKILL [/S system [/U username [/P
[password]]]]
{ [/FI filter] [/PID processid | /IM imagename] } [/T] [/F]
Description:
This tool is used to terminate tasks by process id (PID) or image
name.

Answer 4

Shell "taskkill.exe /f /t /im processname.exe"
This forces (/f) the terminatation of the process with the image name (/im) of processname.exe, and any child processes which were started by it (/t). You may not need all these switches. See the taskkill command help for more information (type the following at the command line):
taskkill/?

Answer 5

Karl Peterson's excellent archive of VB6 code has high quality sample code and full explanations using both WM_CLOSE and TerminateProcess. Accept no substitutes!
One pitfall you might see in a lot of code out there is that sending WM_CLOSE to a single window handle you have isn't sufficient - most applications comprise numerous windows. The answer as implemented in Karl's code: Find all the top-level windows belonging to this application and send the message to each.

Answer 6

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function IsWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd 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 Declare Function CloseHandle Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindowThreadProcessId Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, lpdwProcessId As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Public Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function EnumWindows Lib "user32" (ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long
Private Const PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = &H1F0FFF
Private Target As String
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Creation Date : 24/10/2005 09:03
' Created By : Jason Bruwer
' Purpose : Returns the windows handle of a window if you know the name
' : E.g.
' Microsoft Word
' Microsoft Excel
' Microsoft PowerPoint
' Adobe Reader
' Updated By : [Initials] - [Date] - [Changes]
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function GetWindowsHandle(WindowName As String, hWindow As Long) As Boolean
On Error GoTo Errors
' Get the target's window handle.
hWindow = FindWindow(vbNullString, WindowName)
If hWindow = 0 Then GoTo Cheers
GetWindowsHandle = True
Cheers:
Exit Function
Errors:
frmMain.LogErrorAcrossUsingRBT ("GetWindowsHandle")
GoTo Cheers
End Function
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Creation Date : 24/10/2005 09:03
' Created By : Jason Bruwer
' Purpose : Enumerates all the currently open windows and searches for an application
' with the specified name.
' Updated By : [Initials] - [Date] - [Changes]
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function TerminateTask(app_name As String) As Boolean
On Error GoTo Errors
Target = UCase(app_name)
EnumWindows AddressOf EnumCallback, 0
TerminateTask = True
Cheers:
Exit Function
Errors:
frmMain.LogErrorAcrossUsingRBT ("TerminateTask")
GoTo Cheers
End Function
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Creation Date : 24/10/2005 09:04
' Created By : Jason Bruwer
' Purpose : Checks to see if this is the window we are looking for and then trys
' to kill the application
' Updated By : [Initials] - [Date] - [Changes]
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function EnumCallback(ByVal app_hWnd As Long, ByVal param As Long) As Long
Dim buf As String * 256
Dim title As String
Dim length As Long
' Get the window's title.
length = GetWindowText(app_hWnd, buf, Len(buf))
title = Left$(buf, length)
'If title <> "" Then Debug.Print title
' See if this is the target window.
If InStr(UCase(title), Target) <> 0 Then
' Kill the window.
If Not KillProcess(app_hWnd) Then Exit Function
End If
' Continue searching.
EnumCallback = 1
End Function
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Creation Date : 24/10/2005 09:06
' Created By : Jason Bruwer
' Purpose : Trys to kill an application by using its windows handle
' Updated By : [Initials] - [Date] - [Changes]
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Public Function KillProcess(hWindow As Long) As Boolean
Dim RetrunValue As Long
Dim ProcessValue As Long
Dim ProcessValueID As Long
Dim ThreadID As Long
On Error GoTo Errors
If (IsWindow(hWindow) <> 0) Then
ThreadID = GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWindow, ProcessValueID)
If (ProcessValueID <> 0) Then
App.LogEvent "Warning...killing orphan process..."
ProcessValue = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, CLng(0), ProcessValueID)
RetrunValue = TerminateProcess(ProcessValue, CLng(0))
CloseHandle ProcessValueID
End If
End If
KillProcess = True
Cheers:
Exit Function
Errors:
frmMain.LogErrorAcrossUsingRBT ("KillProcess")
GoTo Cheers
End Function

Answer 7

Here is my code in vb6 to kill process by name
It works for me
Private Sub TerminateProcess(ProcessName As String)
Dim Process As Object
For Each Process In GetObject("winmgmts:").ExecQuery("Select Name from Win32_Process Where Name = '" & ProcessName & "'")
Process.Terminate
Next
End Sub

Answer 8

Doing this through VB6 Internal ways ...
Private Declare Function GetCurrentProcessId Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Public Sub KillProcess(ByVal processName As String)
Set oWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:")
Set oServices = oWMI.InstancesOf("win32_process")
For Each oService In oServices
servicename = LCase(Trim(CStr(oService.Name) & ""))
If InStr(1, servicename, LCase(processName), vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
oService.Terminate
End If
Next
End Sub
...and just use it as follow:
killProcess("notepad.exe")
Second option: [ by SHELL external ways... ]
Shell "taskkill.exe /f /t /im notepad.exe"