Question

What’s the best way to end a c++ program launched with ShellExecute function from the main program?. like..

 ShellExecute(hwnd, TEXT("open"), TEXT("c:\\tools\\123\\myProgram.exe"),
              TEXT(""), NULL, 0);

In this case the launched program is “my Program.exe” and i want to end them. Both the main program & the launched program console application written in vc++.

Answer 1

In the sub-program:

int main(/*...*/) {
    //...
    return 0;
}

You could tell it to do this from the main program through inter-process communication or by sending a control sequence of some kind to the sub-program’s stdin. Posting WM_QUIT or WM_CLOSE to the other process should also work if it has a message pump.

TerminateProcess() will end the program, but it’s certainly not the best way. (cleanup isn’t run)

Exit(0) isn’t a bad way to go either, but it also requires the sub-program to be told it should terminate.