China DOS Union

As the title says, how can I tell whether a certain process has already started?
If it has started, then terminate it.
How should this batch file be written?

Method 1:
wmic process where name="cmd.exe" call terminate
Method 2:
tasklist | find "cmd.exe" && taskkill /fi "imagename eq cmd.exe"
The runtime environment needs XP PRO.
There are quite a lot of commands related to processes in XP.
To view processes you can use tasklist and wmic process.
To terminate a process you can use call terminate in wmic, or taskkill, or tskill, or NTSD's -p(PID) or -pn(name).

Method 2 can probably be simplified a bit more:

tasklist | find "cmd.exe" && taskkill /im cmd.exe

Oops, here comes the nitpicker.。。
True, using the /im parameter is indeed more convenient and a bit simpler.
But judging from Microsoft's development trend and from the standpoint of cultivating good habits, I generally prefer using findstr instead of find, and /fi instead of /im.
In Microsoft's terms, that should count as standardization, I guess.
Also, /fi supports wildcards.
Oops, the nitpicker is the webmaster, gotta run fast.。。

[ Last edited by 3742668 on 2006-4-17 at 01:43 ]

Hehe, of course it wouldn't be "arguing for the sake of it"; the forum is meant to be a place for mutual learning, discussion, and exchange.

Things like findstr really are more formal/standardized (as mentioned above), while things like find are comparatively a simplified approach, very much in the standard DOS style. You could say each has its own characteristics, suitable for users with different habits or requirements.

Thanks to the two experts above for the answers.
It works under XP.

But what about under Win 2000?
taskkill doesn't work.

Originally posted by qy33 at 2006-4-18 01:18:
But what about under Win 2000?
taskkill doesn't work.

There is no TaskKill under Win2000, but you can use the command “ntsd -c q -p PID” instead. For example, if a certain process has PID “444”, then you can execute the command “ntsd -c q -p 444” to forcibly close that process.

Then how do you check what the process PID is?