HOWTO: Implement a "Kill" Operation in Windows NT

ID: Q90749

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: - Microsoft Windows NT version 3.1

SUMMARY

The following sample demonstrates how to implement a "kill" operation, such as a UNIX ps/kill, under Windows NT. Note that PView gives you the PID you need.

The code sample makes use of the Win32 API TerminateProcess(). While TerminateProcess() does clean up the objects owned by the process, it does not notify any DLLs hooked to the process. Therefore, this can easily leave the DLL in an unstable state.

In general, the Task List is a much cleaner method of killing processes.

MORE INFORMATION

The following sample shows how to "kill" a process, given its process ID (PID).

Sample Code

   #include <windows.h>
   #include <stdio.h>

   void ErrorOut(char errstring[30])
   /*
   Purpose: Print out an meaningful error code by means of
            GetLastError and printf.

   Inputs:  errstring - the action that failed, passed by the
                        calling proc.

   Returns: none

   Calls:   GetLastError
   */ 

   {
      DWORD Error;

      Error= GetLastError();
      printf("Error on %s = %d\n", errstring, Error);
   }

   void main(int argc, char *argv[])
   {
      HANDLE hProcess;
      DWORD ProcId;
      BOOL TermSucc;

      if (argc == 2)
      {
         ProcId = atoi(argv[1]);
         hProcess= OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, TRUE, ProcId);
         if (hProcess == NULL)
            ErrorOut("OpenProcess");
         TermSucc= TerminateProcess(hProcess, 0);
         if (TermSucc == FALSE)
            ErrorOut("TerminateProcess");
         else
            printf("Process# %.0lx terminated successfully!\n", ProcId);
      }
      else
      {
         printf("\nKills an active Process\n");
         printf("Usage: killproc ProcessID\n");
      }
   }

Keywords          : kbKernBase kbThread kbGrpKernBase 
Version           : 3.1
Platform          : NT WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: July 5, 1997