Introduction
This article provides a simple example of how to use
the System.Diagnostics.Process library to display a list of running processes,
and to select and kill processes by their process name and ID. It would not be
a major trick to display additional information about the process using the same
library or to kill processes by their ID or name alone rather than their name
and ID but in this example, process names and IDs are used for display purposes
and the purpose of killing a running process.
![process-killer-window-in-windows8.jpg]()
Figure 1: Listing and Killing Processes by Process Name and ID
Getting Started
There is a single solution included with this download, the solution contains a
Win Forms project called "ProcessKillerVB"; this project contains one form
(Form1.vb) and all of the code required to display and kill processes is
contained within that single form class. If you open the attached project into
Visual Studio 2008; you should see the following in the solution explorer:
![solution-explorer-in-windows8.jpg]()
Figure 2: Solution Explorer
Code: The Main Form
The main form contains all of the user interface elements necessary to display
and update the list of currently running processes found on the user's machine.
It also contains a button handler which will kill a process by the process
name. You can also kill a process by its ID but in terms of readability, if the
user is selecting the process, the process name is going to make a lot more
sense to them than will the process ID.
The class begins with the normal and default imports:
Imports
System.Diagnostics
The constructor calls a method called
"UpdateProcessList" which is used to get and display a list of running
processes; it will be described shortly.
Public
Class Form1
Public Sub
New()
' This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
InitializeComponent()
' display the list of running processes
UpdateProcessList()
End Sub
The next bit of code is the UpdateProcessList function;
this function clears the listbox of any existing entries and then loops through
each of the current processes, adding the name and ID of each process to the
list (as Process Name - ID). At the end of the function, a status message is
updated to display the current number of found processes.
''' <summary>
''' Loop through the list of running processes
''' and add each process name to the process
''' listbox
''' </summary>
'''
<remarks></remarks>
Private Sub
UpdateProcessList()
' clear the existing list of any items
lstProcesses.Items.Clear()
' loop through the running processes and add
'each to the list
Dim p As
System.Diagnostics.Process
For Each p
In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses()
lstProcesses.Items.Add(p.ProcessName & " - "
& p.Id.ToString())
Next
lstProcesses.Sorted
= True
' display the number of running processes in
' a status message at the bottom of the page
tslProcessCount.Text = "Processes running: "
& _
lstProcesses.Items.Count.ToString()
End Sub
The next bit of code in the application is the update
button's click event handler; all it does is to call the UpdateProcessList
function to update the contents of the listbox.
''' <summary>
''' Manually update the list of runnings
''' processes
''' </summary>
''' <param
name="sender"></param>
''' <param
name="e"></param>
'''
<remarks></remarks>
Private Sub
btnUpdateProcessList_Click(ByVal sender
As System.Object, _
ByVal e
As System.EventArgs) _
Handles
btnUpdateProcessList.Click
UpdateProcessList()
End Sub
The last bit of the code in the application is used to
kill a running process. Since you can have multiple processes with the same
name, it was necessary to add in the ID along with the name in order to make
some distinction between multiple instances of a single application, else, we
would end up killing all running instances of the application which may or may
not be desirable depending upon what you are doing. If you do want to kill off
all running instances of an application, disregard the ID and kill all running
processes with the same process name.
In the kill button click event handler; we again loop through all of the running
processes and we take the selected item from the process/ID list, and parse it
into a string containing the process name and an integer value containing the
ID. If the current process (in the loop) matches on both the process name and
process ID, the process is killed. At the end, the handler calls the update
method used to repopulate the listbox such that is displays the current list of
active processes and their IDs.
''' <summary>
''' Kill the process selected in the process name
''' and ID listbox
''' </summary>
''' <param
name="sender"></param>
''' <param
name="e"></param>
'''
<remarks></remarks>
Private Sub
btnKill_Click(ByVal sender
As System.Object, _
ByVal e
As System.EventArgs) _
Handles
btnKill.Click
If lstProcesses.SelectedItems.Count <= 0
Then
MessageBox.Show("Click on a process name to select
it.", "No Process
Selected")
Return
End If
' loop through the running processes looking for a
match
' by comparing process name to the name selected in
the listbox
Dim p As
System.Diagnostics.Process
For Each p
In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses()
Dim arr() As
String = _
lstProcesses.SelectedItem.ToString().Split("-")
Dim sProcess As
String = arr(0).Trim()
Dim iId As
Integer = Convert.ToInt32(arr(1).Trim())
If
p.ProcessName = sProcess And p.Id = iId
Then
p.Kill()
End If
Next
' update the list to show the killed process
' has been removed
UpdateProcessList()
End Sub
End
Class
That concludes the description of all of the code used
in this example.
Summary
The article shows one approach that may be used to display a list of current
processes, and to single out and kill a single process based upon both the
process name and its ID. One could also kill all instances of a particular
process by killing all processes that match on name without giving any
consideration to the process ID. The approach shown allows for singling out
specific instances of a process and killing it without taking down all other
matching processes.