How to kill a process in NSIS?

[Razorholt]

Hi,

I would like to add the "auto-update" feature to my sofware but for that I need to make sure that the running process is killed prior to the updates installation.

What would be the line(s) for my to add?


Thanks,
- Dan

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Like thus?


FindWindow $0 "<Window Name>"
SendMessage $0 ${WM_CLOSE} 0 0

[Razorholt]

Thanks man! Lemme see if it works... Will it also work with InnoSetup?

Cheers,
-Dan

[Razorholt]

Just found a discussion on this subject here (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=4478)

[Razorholt]

Lord_Mulder, "FindWindow" doesn't work :( I moved to Inno Setup now because it's easier than NSIS to implement it with Python. But still, no avail...

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Lord_Mulder, "FindWindow" doesn't work :( I moved to Inno Setup now because it's easier than NSIS to implement it with Python. But still, no avail...

I use it, and it does work :sly:
Maybe you did not use it properly or you did not enter the right Window name...

[Razorholt]

it only works in NSIS, correct?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

it only works in NSIS, correct?

Getting a window handle via "FindWindow" and sending a WM_CLOSE message to this window via "SendMessage" are common Windows API calls. So they work everywhere. But I don't how to call those functions with InnoSetup, since I never used it before...

[Razorholt]

Alright, I got it now:

const
WM_CLOSE = $0010;
function InitializeSetup: Boolean;
var
Wnd: HWND;
begin
Wnd := FindWindowByWindowName('<window name>');
if Wnd <> 0 then SendMessage(Wnd, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0);
Result := True;
end;

It works perfectly, with Inno Setup at least.

Thanks,
- Dan

[death2all]

If you still want to use nsis then you can use this: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Processes_plug-in . Works flawlessly in all the setups I have used it in up to now.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

If you still want to use nsis then you can use this: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Processes_plug-in . Works flawlessly in all the setups I have used it in up to now.

Thanks for information. This one looks usefull... :)

[Razorholt]

Thanks death2all. I'm trying to use NSIS instead of InnoSetup but the latter is easier to implement to my python script. I know that there is a nspython plugin for NSIS but I use Python 2.4 - the plugin supports 2.2 and 2.3 only :(

Cheers,
- Dan

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thanks for information. This one looks usefull... :)

Unfortunately this plugin has a very bad method to specify the process that is to be killed. The docs say, that you enter the file name without .exe extension. But if I enter "MPUI" it will kill MPUI.exe as well as MPUI.2006-12-03.Full-Package.exe. Thus the installer will kill itself. That's not how I need it to work!

Guess I need to make my own plugin...

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Okay, here is my own attempt to make a NSIS plugin for killing processes:
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/pub/downloads/testing/NSIS-KillProcess.2006-12-14.zip


Very simple to use:
Section
StrCpy $0 "foo.exe"
DetailPrint "Killing all processed called '$0'"
KillProc::KillProcess
DetailPrint "Killed $0 processes"
SectionEnd

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Here is an updated version:
http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/pub/downloads/testing/NSIS-KillProcesses.2006-12-16.zip

It is now possible to search for processes without killing them.

[Razorholt]

Thanks man. Great job!

- Dan

[LoRd_MuldeR]

1. Removed some unneeded references -> DLL size is now 1/2 of previous version
2. Added some (very brief) documentation

http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/pub/downloads/testing/NSIS-KillProc-Plugin.2006-12-16.zip