How to close a particular instance of Exe file using bat file if more than one instances are open from different directories

Question

Please Help me in this out that I have two instances of the same EXE file running at same time and I want to close only one of them, Both exe are running at the same time and we want to close one using bat file.

If I am using this code.

@echo off
cd "D:\demoFolder\" 
taskkill /f demo.exe
pause

but it is closing all the instances of Exe it found. I run this demo.exe from two directories and I want to close the one from a certain directory.

Answer 1

I made a little batch script. But I only tested it a single path exe. I think it should be ok...

@ECHO OFF

SETLOCAL EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion

REM SET "EXE=to the name of your exe"
REM if you don't want an user input
:EXE
SET "EXE="
SET /P EXE=Please enter your file.exe : 
IF "!EXE!" == "" (
   ECHO Empty. Try again.
   GOTO :EXE
)

REM SET "FPATH=to your exe"
REM if you don't want an user input
:PATH
SET "FPATH="
SET /P FPATH=Please enter your path to file.exe : 
IF "!FPATH!" == "" (
   ECHO Empty. Try again.
   GOTO :PATH
)
IF NOT EXIST "!FPATH!" (
   ECHO Path is invalid. Try again.
   GOTO :PATH
)
IF NOT EXIST "!FPATH!\!EXE!" (
   ECHO Path to executable is invalid. Start over again. ;^)
   GOTO :EXE
)

REM Comment from Stephan (the gr8 one-liner)
SET "PID="
FOR /F "tokens=3 delims=," %%a IN ('"wmic process where name="!EXE!" get executablepath,processid /format:csv | find "!FPATH!""') DO SET "PID=%%a"

IF DEFINED PID (
   ECHO PID %PID% found. Terminating in T- PING 3000
   ping 1.2.3.4 -n 1 -w 3000 >NUL
   taskkill /F /PID %PID% >NUL
   ECHO Have a nice day.
   EXIT /B
)

ECHO No PID for "!FPATH!\!EXE!" found.

Tnx again to Stephan for the input.

Update

✅ I tested it with a random app inside two different folders. It works for me.

❌Btw.: SET /A "TESTNUM=%%i" converts input into an number. I don't think there is a ProcessID Cero? It is to handle the output of tasklist if no PID is found at all.

Answer 2

Ok, you have the same executable (or different executables with the same name - doesn't matter) stored in different locations and you run both/all of them at the same time and want to close the one from a certain location only.

Wmic is able to get you some details about a process, like PID (which you will need to close a certain process) and the exact location of the executable (which you already know). So list all the processes of your executable and filter for the known location to get the PID.

    @echo off
    set "execpath=%cd%" & REM or wherever the app you want to close resides
    set "execapp=demo.exe"
    for /f "tokens=3 delims=," %%a in ('"wmic process where name="%execapp%" get executablepath, processid,status /format:csv |find /i "%execpath%\%execapp%""') do taskkill /pid %%a

Note: we don't need status, it's just to avoid that wmic output ends with the needed PID, because wmic has that ugly line ending of CRCRLF. The additional CR makes life difficult. (that's only one way to get rid of the CR there are others, more generic, but it's good enough here)

Of course you can replace the taskkill command with set "pid=%%a" and work from there - it's up to you.

Note: taskkill will send a "termination signal" to the application. If your application asks for confirmation/save, there's no clean solution, but you can force the app to close with the /f switch (try without first!). Note that this would be a real "kill" - it will not save any progress it made (like "notepad" would just close without saving an altered file)