Binaryworld - Write a console utility to kill a process ... [ VB.net -> Windows ]

The System.Diagnostics.Process class exposes two methods that let you kill a process: CloseMainWindow should be used with processes that have a graphical interface, whereas the Kill method should be used for apps without a user interface (or those whose main window is disable and can't process the WM_CLOSE message).

It's quite easy to use these methods (and a few others) to create a command-line utility that kills a process whose ID or name has been passed as an argument. Here's the complete source code, you should just create a console application project and compile it to a properly named executable, such as KILLPROC:

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Imports System.Diagnostics

Module Module1
  Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
    ' check that we have only one argument
    If args.Length <> 1 Then
      Console.WriteLine("SYNTAX: KillProc pid | procname")
      End
    End If

    Dim arg As String = args(0)
    Dim proc As Process

    Try
      ' attempt to use the argument as a PID
      proc = Process.GetProcessById(CInt(arg))
    Catch ex As Exception
      ' ignore exceptions
    End Try

    If proc Is Nothing Then
      ' attempt to use the argument as a process name
      Dim procs() As Process = Process.GetProcessesByName(arg)
      If procs.Length = 1 Then
        ' we've found the process
        proc = procs(0)
      ElseIf procs.Length > 1 Then
        Console.WriteLine _
          ("Process name is ambiguous. Unable to proceed.")
        End
      ElseIf procs.Length = 0 Then
        Console.WriteLine("Process not found. Unable to proceed")
        End
      End If
    End If

    ' kill the process
    Dim res As Boolean

    ' attempt to kill the process by closing its main window
    res = proc.CloseMainWindow()

    If res = False Then
      ' no UI or the window is disabled
      proc.Kill()
    End If

    ' wait for the process to end
    If proc.WaitForExit(1000) Then
      Console.WriteLine("Process {0} has been killed", proc.ProcessName)
    Else
      Console.WriteLine("Unable to kill process {0}", proc.ProcessName)
    End If
  End Sub
End Module