Cloosing application

Close current Delphi application:

there are several options for closing a Delphi application:
o NB. "abort" does not terminate an application, it creates a
silent exception which gets handled by the exception handler
o call form.close method of the main form:
but this then checks the OnClose routine to see if it can
close and if errors arise then close fails
o call application.terminate:
doesn't work for console applications (use Halt instead)
this will process the finalization section but not
try..finally
o call halt:
this is the more generic way to terminate an application
this will process the finalization section but not
try..finally
o create own app killer routine that should definitely destroy
the application:
eg. procedure KillProcessNow; //in fmxutils.pas
var memmgr : TMemoryManager;
begin
try
exitproc := nil; ExceptProc := nil; ErrorProc := nil;
SetRaiseList(nil); LibModuleList := nil;
ModuleUnloadList := Nil;

 // ask windows nicely to kill us. (well, as nice as

we get here)
TerminateProcess(GetCurrentProcess, 0);
// what - still here? Surely not, Let's pop the
stack
while true do
asm
pop eax;
end;
finally
// we don't believe you could ever get here. but
if we do,
// well, we'll just make sure that nothing will
ever work again anyway.
memmgr.GetMem := nil; memmgr.FreeMem := nil;
memmgr.ReallocMem := nil;
SetMemoryManager(memmgr); end;
end;

Run an application, wait for it to finish, then destroy

it:
see example in FMXUtils.pas for function WinExecAndWait which
will allow you to run an application such as a DOS application
running in a console window, wait for it to complete, then
terminate it and then continue with your program.
o NB. for this to work on a DOS console, you should execute
a shortcut to the app. and set the shortcut's property to
"Close on Exit"

Kill All Applications:

 this uses the TerminateApp command (in WinAPI ToolHelp) to kill

the app but may not free all its resources.
uses: ToolHelp;
procedure KillAll;
o var pTask : PTaskEntry; Task : Bool; ThisTask: THANDLE;
o begin
GetMem (pTask, SizeOf (TTaskEntry));
pTask^.dwSize := SizeOf (TTaskEntry);
Task := TaskFirst (pTask);
while Task do
begin
if pTask^.hInst = hInstance then
ThisTask := pTask^.hTask
else TerminateApp (pTask^.hTask, NO_UAE_BOX);
Task := TaskNext (pTask);
end;
TerminateApp (ThisTask, NO_UAE_BOX);
o end;

My method to close a particular named application:

uses: ShellAPI;
procedure TFrmHASFix.CloseAnApplication(Title,AltTitle :String);
var
o SwitchWnd, Wnd : hWnd;

o Style : LongInt;
o Buff, ProgTitle, AlternativeTitle : Array[0..6] of Char; {limit
size to first 6 characters}
begin
o StrPLCopy(ProgTitle,Title,6); {convert string title to nullterm. char ProgTitle}
o StrPLCopy(AlternativeTitle,AltTitle,6); {convert string title to
null-term. char ProgTitle}
o {Wnd := EnumWindow(Handle,)}{is this a better tool????}
o Wnd := GetWindow(Handle, gw_HWndLast);
o GetWindowText(Wnd,buff,sizeof(buff)); {initialise buff}
o While ((Wnd <> 0) and not((Buff = ProgTitle) or (Buff =
AlternativeTitle))) do
{get list of all open windows except this programs
window handle}
begin
if (Wnd <> Handle) and isWindowVisible(Wnd) and
(GetWindow(Wnd, gw_Owner) = 0) and
(GetWindowText(Wnd,buff, sizeof(buff)) <> 0) then
GetWindowText(Wnd,buff,sizeof(buff));
if ((buff = ProgTitle) or (Buff = AlternativeTitle)) then
begin
postMessage(Wnd, $10, 0, 0);{gives window close
command but closure is under application control}
{ToolHelp.TerminateApp(Wnd,NO_UAE_BOX); }
{forcibly closes app but may not free all
resources}

 {DestroyWindow(Wnd);}{close application - is
there a better way???}
showMessage('One instance closed');
end;
Wnd := GetWindow(Wnd, gw_hWndPrev);
end;
end;

Close an external application using WM_CLOSE:

NB. this will not force closure if target application prompts user
such as "Save changes?"
hnd : FindWindow(nil, PChar('EQuery Sender'));
if hnd = 0 then exit; //sender application was not running
if not postmessage(hnd, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0) then
o Application.messageBox('Warning! Sender application did not
close.', 'Sender did not close', idok);