Question

So, the code goes somehow like this:

MAIN(){
/*waiting window class declaration*/
    threadinfo* oThread=new threadinfo(); //An object that will help me know when to finish the thread
    QueueUserWorkItem((LPTHREAD_START_ROUTINE)waitingWindow, (void*)mThread, WT_EXECUTELONGFUNCTION);
    function_that_takes_time();
    oThread->setTerminated(); //set member terminated to bool true
/*continue with other things*/
}

and waitingWindow function that will run on that thread

MSG msg;
hwndWaiting=CreateWindow(...) // here the window is created
while (msg.message != WM_QUIT)
    {
        if (PeekMessage(&msg, null, 0U, 0U, PM_REMOVE))
        {
            TranslateMessage(&msg);
            DispatchMessage(&msg);
        }
        else
        {
            if(oThread->isTerminated()) // isTerminated returns bool true if terminated
            {
                delete oThread;
                ExitThread(0);
            }
        }
    }
ExitThread(0);

Is ExitThread a good way to remove the waiting window, and safely remove the thread? (at least I’m 100% sure this way when to end it).

I’m asking this because this works nice in Windows XP, but will crash with “the application has stopped working” on Windows 7.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

The best way to end threads in general, is to let them “gracefully” finish up by themselves. You could tell the thread to end by setting an event, for example:

HANDLE hevent_die = CreateEvent(...);  
HANDLE hthread_something = CreateThread(...); // or _beginthread()
...

DWORD WINAPI thread_func (LPVOID param)
{
  while(working && WaitForSingleObject(hevent_die, 0)!=WAIT_OBJECT_0)
  {
    ...
  }

  return 0;
}


while (msg.message != WM_QUIT)
{
   ...

   if(WaitForSingleObject(hthread_something, 0) == WAIT_OBJECT_0)
   {
     // do things if needed
   }
}

SetEvent(hevent_die);
WaitForSingleObject(hthread_something, INFINITE);

CloseHandle(hthread_something);
CloseHandle(hevent_die);
hthread_something = 0;
hevent_die = 0;

If you are using nested loops inside the thread function, they too will have to end if they receive the event.