How to terminate a program started with ShellExecute

Question

In MFC, I am using this code

ShellExecute(NULL, _T("open"), _T(EXTERNAL_APP), params, 
             _T(EXTERNAL_PATH), SW_HIDE);

to start an external program which runs in the background.

However when my app is terminated , this program is still running, as can be verified by inspecting the Windows Task Manager pane.

So my question is, how can I make the external program stop when my app stops ?

Answer 1

Try ShellExecuteEx instead, which can return a HANDLE hProcess of the newly-started process.

When/if you have a HANDLE hProcess then I expect you can pass it as a parameter it to the TerminateProcess function: which you would call (to terminate the child process) before your application stops.