Function: FindAndCloseProcessByName

[Brett]

Function: FindAndCloseProcessByName
Last Revision: October 7, 2004 (001)

Information
This function can be used to find a process by it's filename and then close it by sending it a close message.

To use this function in your Setup Factory 7.0 projects, simply copy and paste it into your Global Functions. You can get there by selecting Resources > Global Functions from the main menu.

function FindAndCloseProcessByName(strName)
	local tblProcesses = Window.EnumerateProcesses();
	local bProcessFound = false;
	local nProcessHandle = nil;
	if(tblProcesses)then
		local strProcessName;
		local nHandle;
		for nHandle, strProcessName in tblProcesses do
			if(String.Find(strProcessName,strName,1,false) ~= -1)then
				nProcessHandle = nHandle;
				bProcessFound = true;
			end
		end
	end
	
	if(bProcessFound and nProcessHandle)then
		Window.Close(nProcessHandle,CLOSEWND_SENDMESSAGE);
	end
end

To call the function from your project, try copying and pasting the following script onto an action tab, such as the On Startup event. You can get there by choosing Project > Actions.

-- Close Internet Explorer if running
FindAndCloseProcessByName("iexplore.exe");

Function Name: FindAndCloseProcessByName
Type: Setup Factory 7.0 Function
Created By: Brett Kapilik

Comments? Please post them here.

[Frackounet]

Here the code for programs like MSN Messenser, the CLOSEWND_SENDMESSAGE don't close completly the program.
Change it in CLOSEWND_TERMINATE

Information
This function can be used to find a process by it's filename and then close it by sending it a close message.

To use this function in your Setup Factory 7.0 projects, simply copy and paste it into your Global Functions. You can get there by selecting Resources > Global Functions from the main menu.

function FindAndCloseProcessByName(strName)
	local tblProcesses = Window.EnumerateProcesses();
	local bProcessFound = false;
	local nProcessHandle = nil;
	if(tblProcesses)then
		local strProcessName;
		local nHandle;
		for nHandle, strProcessName in tblProcesses do
			if(String.Find(strProcessName,strName,1,false) ~= -1)then
				nProcessHandle = nHandle;
				bProcessFound = true;
			end
		end
	end
	
	if(bProcessFound and nProcessHandle)then
		Window.Close(nProcessHandle,CLOSEWND_TERMINATE);
	end
end

To call the function from your project, try copying and pasting the following script onto an action tab, such as the On Startup event. You can get there by choosing Project > Actions.

-- Close MSN Messenger if running
FindAndCloseProcessByName("msnmsgr.exe");

[Intrigued]

Here is a footnote to remember though and it may or may not affect said application being terminated (closed):

"Immediately terminate the program's process. The state of global data maintained by the program's dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) may be compromised if this option is used. (When this option is selected, the AutoPlay application calls the Windows API function "TerminateProcess" to immediately terminate the specified program.)"

and, this was interesting to find in another area:

"Tip: Pro Edition users can use Window.Close(Application.GetWndHandle(), CLOSEWND_TERMINATE) in place of Application.Exit(). This will close the window before the window draws itself (i.e. the user will see nothing)."

[ddstrg]

Very good,
Thanks you!

[TuanKTCDCN]

Help me to create a function FindAndCloseProcessByClass(strClass)
Thanks a lot!

[Staggan]

This function is extremely useful...

How can I get it to close ALL instances of explorer though if the user has multiple browsers open ?

It works fine for single windows... but any more than 1 and it leaves the rest open...

Thanks

[Staggan]

Its ok, I resolved this issue.

Thanks

[Adam]

Good to hear.

Adam Kapilik

[kymaita]

Hi

I'm testing TrueUpdate software and I'm just in this Step.

I want to close my application if it is running at the moment an update is available and user press a next button after accepting the license agreement.

I tried this code ( FindAndCloseProcessByName) with a sample windows form application made in .Net 2.0 and it works well but my application is like Messenger application run minimized in system try . One feature of my application is that it has timers running in the background and those timers stop the application for closing; maybe because those timers run in separate threads. I need to use a more powerful instruction to dispose the application and all threads associated to it.

What can I do?

Kenny

[pww]

cool, but closes only one instance of the app.
In case it's possible more than one instance of the app to be opened (as is the case for most apps), should be something like this

function FindAndCloseProcessByName(strName)
	local tblProcesses = Window.EnumerateProcesses();
	if(tblProcesses)then
		local strProcessName;
		local nHandle;
		for nHandle, strProcessName in tblProcesses do
			if(String.Find(strProcessName,strName,1,false) ~= -1)then
				Window.Close(nHandle,CLOSEWND_SENDMESSAGE);
			end;
		end;
	end;
end;

[kk250040]

Hello friends,

What if i need to detect a batch file running. I can check for the "cmd.exe", but there are chances that the user opens his own cmd.exe for some other purposes.
Is there any other way of detecting a batch file running. My batch file consists of scripts to take backup of the host machine. But when i tried to detect the "xcopy.exe" for the copy command in the bacth file, its not being detected though the list of processes in task manager show the xcopy.exe in the list. So how do i detect this kind of a bacth file running...

Please suggest me how i can do it...

Thanks,
Kusuma

[DanCooperstock]

Here's a version of the code above, that is for checking whether the application being installed is currently running (rather than the installer), since that is likely to cause a lot of files to be unable to be installed. It confirms whether it's OK to stop the app.

-- Look for an existing instance of strName, ask whether it's
-- OK to close it, return true if there was no instance or we
-- closed it, false otherwise
function FindAndCloseDonation(strName)
	local tblProcesses;
	local bProcessFound = true;
	
	while bProcessFound do
		tblProcesses = Window.EnumerateProcesses();
		bProcessFound = false;
		if (tblProcesses) then
			local strProcessName;
			local nHandle;
			for nHandle, strProcessName in tblProcesses do
				if (String.Find(strProcessName,strName) ~= -1) then
					if Dialog.Message("Already Running", "Your application is currently running, and the installation cannot complete while it is running.\n\nIs it OK for the application to be closed, before continuing this installation?",
							MB_YESNO, MB_INCONQUESTION) == IDYES then
						bProcessFound = true;
						Window.Close(nHandle, CLOSEWND_TERMINATE);
						Application.Sleep(1000);
					else
						return false;
					end
				end
			end
		end
	end
		
	return true -- not found, or successfull closed
end

This would likely be called in one of your Next button actions, and the installer would be exited if it returned false.

[artistscope]

I was using a more polite method of first detecting if the app is running and then popping a warning asking to close the app before proceeding.

But I have just noticed that there is a problem... although the action script has popped the warning and the uninstaller exits, Add Remove programs still removes some entries which cause the next attempt to fail. How this happens is that while the pop up is waiting for acknowledgment by clicking ok, the Anti-Virus program has already been asked for permission to let the uninstaller run. By approving uninstall in the AV prompt the uninstall gets mangled.

Ok, so who would click ok for AV to allow uninstall when they have already been warned about closing the app?

Just about everyone :-(

-- These actions are performed before the screen is shown.
instances_of_file = 0;
-- List of browsers to check - must be all lowercase.
file_to_check_for_0 = "chrome.exe";
file_to_check_for_1 = "firefox.exe";
file_to_check_for_2 = "iexplore.exe";
file_to_check_for_3 = "mozilla.exe";
file_to_check_for_4 = "netscape.exe";
file_to_check_for_5 = "opera.exe";
file_to_check_for_6 = "safari.exe";
-- Check if browser is open.
processes = System.EnumerateProcesses();
for j, file_path in processes do
file = String.SplitPath(file_path);
if (String.Lower(file.Filename..file.Extension)) == file_to_check_for_2 then
Dialog.Message("Warning","Close all Internet Explorer browser windows before continuing!");
Application.Exit(0);
end
end

So I am looking for a better solution.

[artistscope]

What's the difference bewteen...

Window.EnumerateProcesses()

and

System.EnumerateProcesses()?

[MaxWho17]

With Setup Factory 9.0 you must replace

for nHandle, strProcessName in tblProcesses do

with

for nHandle, strProcessName in pairs(tblProcesses) do