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Kill a process if its running

This is a snippet I use to search for and kill a process if it is found in the list of running processes.

Submitted By: PsychoCoder

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Views: 25,728

Language: C#

Last Modified: February 19, 2009

Instructions: Pass the method the name of the process you want to kill (minus the .EXE)

Snippet

//Namespaces needed
using System.Diagnostics;
public bool FindAndKillProcess(string name)
{
//here we're going to get a list of all running processes on
//the computer
foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses()) {
//now we're going to see if any of the running processes
//match the currently running processes by using the StartsWith Method,
//this prevents us from incluing the .EXE for the process we're looking for.
//. Be sure to not
//add the .exe to the name you provide, i.e: NOTEPAD,
//not NOTEPAD.EXE or false is always returned even if
//notepad is running
if (clsProcess.ProcessName.StartsWith(name))
{
//since we found the proccess we now need to use the
//Kill Method to kill the process. Remember, if you have
//the process running more than once, say IE open 4
//times the loop thr way it is now will close all 4,
//if you want it to just close the first one it finds
//then add a return; after the Kill
clsProcess.Kill();
//process killed, return true
return true;
}
}
//process not found, return false
return false;
}

Copy & Paste

//Namespaces needed
using System.Diagnostics;

public bool FindAndKillProcess(string name)
{
	//here we're going to get a list of all running processes on
	//the computer
	foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses()) {
		//now we're going to see if any of the running processes
		//match the currently running processes by using the StartsWith Method,
		//this prevents us from incluing the .EXE for the process we're looking for.
		//. Be sure to not
		//add the .exe to the name you provide, i.e: NOTEPAD,
		//not NOTEPAD.EXE or false is always returned even if
		//notepad is running
		if (clsProcess.ProcessName.StartsWith(name))
		{
			//since we found the proccess we now need to use the
			//Kill Method to kill the process. Remember, if you have
			//the process running more than once, say IE open 4
			//times the loop thr way it is now will close all 4,
			//if you want it to just close the first one it finds
			//then add a return; after the Kill
			clsProcess.Kill();
			//process killed, return true
			return true;
		}
	}
	//process not found, return false
	return false;
}

Comments
Korupt 2008-08-15 16:22:26
"Foreach cannot operate on a 'method group'. Did you intend to invoke the 'method group'?" I get this compiler error
Dykam 2008-09-14 03:02:33
He need's to change foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses) { to foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses()) {
salahuddincse 2009-03-05 23:18:39
good
simontasker 2009-03-06 08:49:37
Hi, this is a great little snippet of code, im just curious how you would reference/call it in your main code? is the it similar to a function? Thanks
bshoemaker 2009-03-06 17:50:37
In addition, he also left out the fact that if the process is a system process, a Win32Exception will be hit, crashing the program. The clsProcess.Kill() code should be within a try/catch block catching Win32Exceptions.