Can't kill a still running Outlook instance

Question

I'm trying to kill a still running outlook instance(used in my application not outlook itself), i call the following in my deconstructor

        //_app = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application
        _app.Quit();
        Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(_app);
        Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(_app.Session);
        GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
        GC.Collect();

But nothing helps, are there even more ways to kill it and if so, how?

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez · Answer 1 · 2013-09-04T14:37:53.827

4

First a import of the user32.dll is done to be able to use the GetWindowThreadProcessId

Then the Kill method receives the outlook app by parameter and obtains the process and kills it

public static class OutlookKiller
{
        [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetWindowThreadProcessId", SetLastError = true,
CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true,
CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)]
    private static extern long GetWindowThreadProcessId(long hWnd, out long lpdwProcessId);

    public static void Kill(ref Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application app)
    {
        long processId = 0;
        long appHwnd = (long)app.Hwnd;

        GetWindowThreadProcessId(appHwnd, out processId);

        Process prc = Process.GetProcessById((int)processId);
        prc.Kill();
    }
}

edited Sep 04 '13 at 14:37

answered Sep 04 '13 at 14:32

Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez

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Could you please explain the code? If you got it from somewhere, where? It's important to know this so others coming across it actually know a) where it came from, and b) what the *general* idea of it is. – Arran Sep 04 '13 at 14:34
@Mauricio Gracia Thanks for your effort, but the (long)app.Hwnd seems not to be correct – Sep 04 '13 at 14:40
@Daapii "seems" means that you tested and its failing ? – Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez Sep 04 '13 at 14:51
@Daapii I found that code in another answer here in stackoverflow but you are right the .HWND property does not exist (or something is missing) – Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez Sep 04 '13 at 16:23
see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10127219/c-sharp-outlook-interop-outlook-not-shutting-down – Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez Sep 04 '13 at 16:31

Danimal111 · Answer 2 · 2022-06-17T15:52:55.330

This was "KILLING" me (pardon the pun) but finally dug in and here is a solution that kills a process by name. My target is Outlook... but it should work for any and App by referencing the PID and it will kill all instances of said application. For instance if you have 5 instances of Notepad, it will kill them all... I have yet to see someone find the name and then kill the process in the same post, so here you go.

using System.Management;
using System.Diagnostics;


public static class KillProcessByPID
{
    public static void KillProcessByName(string ProcessName)
    {
        string OutlookProcessName = "";
        foreach (Process otlk in Process.GetProcesses())
        {
            if (otlk.ProcessName.ToLower().Contains(ProcessName.ToLower())) //OUTLOOK is the one I am seeking - yours may vary
            {
                OutlookProcessName = otlk.ProcessName;
            }
        }
        //Get process ID by Name
        var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(OutlookProcessName);
        foreach (var process in processes)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("PID={0}", process.Id);
            Console.WriteLine("Process Handle={0}", process.Handle);
            KillProcessAndChildren(process.Id);
        }
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Kill a process, and all of its children, grandchildren, etc.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="pid">Process ID.</param>
    public static void KillProcessAndChildren(int pid)
    {
        //Process[] remoteByName = Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad", "myComputer");
        // Cannot close 'system idle process'.
        if (pid == 0)
        {
            return;
        }
        ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher
                ("Select * From Win32_Process Where ParentProcessID=" + pid);
        ManagementObjectCollection moc = searcher.Get();
        foreach (ManagementObject mo in moc)
        {
            KillProcessAndChildren(Convert.ToInt32(mo["ProcessID"]));
        }
        try
        {
            Process proc = Process.GetProcessById(pid);
            proc.Kill();
        }
        catch (ArgumentException)
        {
            // Process already exited.
        }
    }
}

I call it at the beginning and end of my app with the following one Killer line of code:

    KillProcessByPID.KillProcessByName("OUTLOOK");

I borrowed from many and I'm not sure where, but I thank you all and give you all credit... apologies for not referencing you directly, but this was instrumental.

Can't kill a still running Outlook instance

2 Answers2