I have just built version one of my testing application using Windows Forms. I have noticed that when running the application, it runs completely fine no hitches, exactly like the debug view. When it comes to closing the application I have noticed that the actual executable/process name hangs within Task manager and does not correctly close.
Upon further inspection I have noticed that when calling another form without hiding the previous form, a new process is spawned (kinda expected). When closing the new form (containing a few text boxes, labels and a DataGridView) the newly spawned process does not kill it's self, but remains. Then closing the main window the window disappears from the taskbar/view, but still, the processes remain active using 8,268k - 8,308k Memory
private void ClientSearch_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ClientSearch Clientsearch = new ClientSearch();
Clientsearch.Show();
}
Standard explanations for this behavior:
Hiding your main window when you display another window and forgetting to unhide it. There is no visible window anymore, nor can the user do anything to unhide it, but your app keeps motoring of course.
Starting a thread and not making sure that it is terminated when the main window closes. Setting the thread's IsBackground property to true is a workaround for that.
Calling Application.DoEvents() in your code. A very dangerous method that permits you to close the user interface but doesn't stop the loop in which it was called so the main thread of your app does not exit either.
This kind of problem is readily visible as well when you debug your app. You might have gotten in the habit of using the red rectangle on the toolbar (aka Debug + Stop Debugging) to force the debugger to quit. The Debug + Windows + Threads debugger window can provide insight into the cause of the last two bullets. Or you can use Tools + Attach to Process to attach the debugger to a zombie process.
Call
Application.Exit();
on form close/closing.
Your applications should only be creating one process per run. A new form should not be creating a new process.
Related
I modified an app the way I wanted. But seems like there is a small problem.
When I close it, the process associated with the app stays open and it's not terminating.
Yes, the RAM that it consumes decreases, but seems like something is not disposed of and this keeps the process running. How I can find what prevents the process from closing?
Its a program, written in C# WPF, which I modified by adding more windows, cycling between the windows, which open each other with
Form frm1=New Form()
this.Hide()
The second I close directly with
this.Close()
While before this I call other form.
The most simple way is to make it call batch that terminates the process on window closing. But I want to find out what is letting the process to terminate.
There Seems an instance is still running ( Not disposed the right way ) ...
Try to check if frm1 and other Instanciated Forms are disposed well , else dispose them on the on the main Form's Exit event .
if (!frm1.IsDisposed) frm1.Dispose();
do same to other instances .
I have a simple WinForms application that runs in the system tray. Is it possible to password protect the program from closing if a user tries to close it from task manager?
Ideally I want to keep a user from closing the process but if windows is restarted, I want it to close without being prompted. Much like antivirus programs.
If a user has the correct permissions they will be able to kill your process from the Task Manager.
That said as #fujiFX mentions in his comment the FormClosing event is a good start and better than nothing.
The FormClosing event occurs as the form is being closed. When a form is closed, it is disposed, releasing all resources associated with the form. If you cancel this event, the form remains opened. To cancel the closure of a form, set the Cancel property of the FormClosingEventArgs passed to your event handler to true.
It's hard to do, but you can create two applications, one is main program and two is helper. If helper is killed, then main app restarts it. If main app is killed, then helper restarts main app.
You can make this verification on YourService.Stop method (assuming you're using a Windows Service thus inheriting from ServiceBase), but as far as I know you cannot prevent the user from killing the proccess, just to close the app (two different things in Windows).
Is there some way to watch for / intercept a window opening in Windows and then to block said window from opening? This would be for an application that's already running and I wouldn't want to stop the process, just close the popup window it spawns.
Update:
A process is already running (e.g. it's in Task Manager) but has no visible windows.
At some random time, that process will popup a window
I manually close the window (click "OK").
The process continues to run at this point and will, again, popup a window a bit later (repeating these steps).
I want to automate step #3, where I have to manually close the popup, by intercepting that window opening and closing it or hiding it or never letting it open in the first place. I don't want to do this by polling the open windows. I want to receive some event that a window is about to open.
I do not control this other application, so I can't otherwise change it. And I don't want to kill the process, itself.
If you're trying to do what I asked (allow only one instance of a program to run at a time), here is an elegant solution using a Mutex. You can probably copy and paste most of that code to achieve what you want.
I've worked on quite a few WPF solutions, and this is the first time i am seeing this problem.
Today it started happening intermittently. where after closing my WPF window, the .exe is still running under visual studio.
so i have to kill my program.exe manually in order to compile again.
Initially i thought because i overrode application start/exit/exception .. but i commented all that out, and it is still happening.
In fact, i see multiple instances of my program.exe in process explorer!
Can't figure out what is causing my exe not to exit. Is there any explicit dipose logic i can add in applicaton exit event to ensure it really exits?
My application consists of single window, and multiple user controls as views.
update
if i open in debug mode. and close the main WPF window, my visual studio does not stop debugging. however call stack window is empty.
You can use the Application.Exit event to log when your application shuts down.
Alternatively, you can attach the debugger to your running instance (even if it wasn't started in the debugger) then pause it to see where it's at. Make sure to look at the Threads tool window, as you may pause outside the UI thread.
This should take care of it, though its probably better to try to figure out the underlying issue.
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();
I'm writting an WPF application using the mvvm toolkint.
In the main windows I have a command in a button that open another window using:
catView.ShowDialog();
Well, I close that window (using a close button or the X) and when I close the main window, the app is still running and I have to kill it.
If I don't open the second window, the app shutdown normally.
Why if I open another window I can't close the app normally?
I have this in the close button of the second window:
this.DialogResult = true;
this.Close();
On the other hand, I start the app in this way (mvvm toolkit way):
Views.MainView view = new Views.MainView();
view.DataContext = new ViewModels.MainViewModel();
view.Show();
Thank you very much.
The problem is probably unrelated to opening and closing the window but is somthing inside that window.
This usually happens when you have another thread still running when you close the application, check for anything that might be creating a new thread inside the window's code (including System.Threading.Thread, ThreadPool, BackgroundWorker and 3rd party components), make sure all background threads shut down before closing the application (or if you can't shut them down at least mark them as background threads).
Also look for anything that can open another (invisible) window, it's common to use window messages to an invisible window as an inter-process communication mechanism, again look for 3rd party code that might be doing that.
Nir is correct, a thread is probably still running in your other window.
You can fix this by terminating the application's thread dispatcher when the window closes.
public Window1()
{
InitializeComponent();
// This line should fix it:
this.Closed += (sender, e) => this.Dispatcher.InvokeShutdown();
}
I'm happy to be corrected if this is not the right way to do things. Worked well for me though.
PS.
If your other window is designed to run in a different thread, then read this by Eugene Prystupa:
running-wpf-application-with-multiple-ui-threads
I don't know if this is causing your issue or not, but you don't need the call to Close() in your second window. Setting the DialogResult automatically closes the window.