Ending another application gracefully

[!NoItAll]

I have a program that needs to access the files that are open by another program on the computer.
When my application comes up I can easily see if the other application is running with the .net Process.GetProcessesByName method

Dim MyProcesses() as Process = GetProcessesByName("AnApplication")
 
For Each  Instance as Process in MyProcesses
 
     If MsgBox("application is running - do you want to end it?", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo or MsgBoxStyle.Question, "Warning") = MsgBoxResult.Yes then
         Instance.Kill()
         Do Until Process.GetProcessByID(Instance.Id).HasExited = True
             My Application.DoEvents()
         Loop
     End if
 
Next
 

The problem is that the Instance.Kill does not allow the application to end gracefully. In VB6 you could use the SendMessage API to send a close message to the application and it would end gracefully - i.e. give the user the normal closing prompt. This just slays the application - leaving any open files in their potentially incomplete state, etc.
Does anyone know of a way (other than reverting to unmanaged code) to do this properly? I'm disapointed .NET does it the way it does - it's not kosher.

Des

[tlhintoq]

I still use SendMessage quite often for stuff like this.
Should still work for your need

        private const int APPCOMMAND_VOLUME_MUTE = 0x80000;
        private const int APPCOMMAND_VOLUME_DOWN = 0x90000;
        private const int APPCOMMAND_VOLUME_UP = 0xA0000;
        private const int WM_APPCOMMAND = 0x319;
 
 
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        public static extern IntPtr SendMessageW(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
 
        public static void VolumeUp()
        {
            System.Windows.Forms.Form Dummy = new Form();
            SendMessageW(Dummy.Handle, WM_APPCOMMAND, Dummy.Handle, (IntPtr)APPCOMMAND_VOLUME_UP);
        }
 
 

[!NoItAll]

Yeah - I can do that, but so far my program has not had to revert to unmanaged code ... yet.
I don't think what I'm doing is that out-of-the-ordinary. It's a shame that .net, at 3.5, doesn't offer it.

[Plater]

Well killing a Process is just that, killing it (tell the kernal to stop working it and free up all its resources). All other forms of closing are just special messages sent to it on the message pump. Makes sense that they would use different objects.
That said, I don't know why they didn't put the SendMessage stuff into .NET directly.

[!NoItAll]

OK - I know the answer now - and I simply can't believe I missed this. It was staring me in the face all along!
Here is the code:

Dim MyProcesses() as Process = GetProcessesByName("AnApplication") 
 
For Each  Instance as Process in MyProcesses 
 
     If MsgBox("application is running - do you want to end it?", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo or MsgBoxStyle.Question, "Warning") = MsgBoxResult.Yes then 
         Instance.CloseMainWindow()
         Do Until Process.GetProcessByID(Instance.Id).HasExited = True 
             My Application.DoEvents() 
             'we probably want to set a timeout in here...
         Loop 
     End if 
 
Next 
 
 

So the missing element was the .CloseMainWindow() method that, for some very strange reason, I just never saw in the intellisense. Entirely my fault - as I'm sure it was there all along!

Crap - I've earned an Idiot Flag!