How to Close a program using python?

Question

Is there a way that python can close a windows application (example: Firefox) ?

I know how to start an app, but now I need to know how to close one.

What kind of application do you mean? A python application? An external one? — Stedy
– Stedy, Commented Apr 11, 2011 at 18:13
@Stedy Firefox, i'm using python to open a web page every 2 hours and i need to close that page after 5 minutes. — acrs
– acrs, Commented Apr 11, 2011 at 18:18
@user514584: why are you using an external program to open a webpage instead of using urllib? — Wooble
– Wooble, Commented Apr 11, 2011 at 18:46
@Wooble I did not know about urllib and the page that i'm opening will need flash player. — acrs
– acrs, Commented Apr 11, 2011 at 18:55
@acrs To close an app by name, refer my code in the answer below stackoverflow.com/a/70849062/12862934 — Prashant
– Prashant, Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 5:29

Community · Accepted Answer · 2022-08-10 18:24:05Z

33

# I have used subprocess comands for a while
# this program will try to close a firefox window every ten secounds

import subprocess
import time

# creating a forever loop
while 1 :
    subprocess.call("TASKKILL /F /IM firefox.exe", shell=True)
    time.sleep(10)

edited Aug 10, 2022 at 18:24

CommunityBot

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answered May 4, 2012 at 23:57

gh057

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5 Comments

Nabin Over a year ago

This works but I get Access denied. I am using windows.

Jean-François Fabre Over a year ago

you're getting access denied because you're on a server and other people are using firefox. You can only kill your instances

H Gaming Over a year ago

@ellockie is there a way I can tell it to task kill all applications that are not py.launcher?

Aladin Over a year ago

@HGaming By using a regex, you need to specify all files except the py.launcher

Prakhar Parikh Over a year ago

I am getting an : taskkill is not recognised as a batch or an internal command

Jean-François Fabre · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-13 19:13:47Z

8

in windows you could use taskkill within subprocess.call:

subprocess.call(["taskkill","/F","/IM","firefox.exe"])

/F forces process termination. Omitting it only asks firefox to close, which can work if the app is responsive.

Cleaner/more portable solution with psutil (well, for Linux you have to drop the .exe part or use .startwith("firefox"):

import psutil,os
for pid in (process.pid for process in psutil.process_iter() if process.name()=="firefox.exe"):
    os.kill(pid)

that will kill all processes named firefox.exe

By the way os.kill(pid) is "overkill" (no pun intended). process has a kill() method, so:

for process in (process for process in psutil.process_iter() if process.name()=="firefox.exe"):
    process.kill()

edited Dec 13, 2020 at 19:13

answered Jan 17, 2017 at 20:48

Jean-François Fabre♦

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Comments

Demian Brecht · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-11 18:13:43Z

7

If you're using Popen, you should be able to terminate the app using either send_signal(SIGTERM) or terminate().

See docs here.

answered Apr 11, 2011 at 18:13

Demian Brecht

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Elalfer · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-11 18:16:41Z

1

You want probably use os.kill http://docs.python.org/library/os.html#os.kill

answered Apr 11, 2011 at 18:16

Elalfer

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Carlos ODL · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-22 14:30:04Z

1

In order to kill a python tk window named MyappWindow under MS Windows:

from os import system
system('taskkill /F /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq MyappWindow" ')

stars maybe used as wildcard:

from os import system 
system('taskkill /F /FI "WINDOWTITLE eq MyappWind*" ')

Please, refer to "taskkill /?" for additional options.

answered May 22, 2018 at 14:30

Carlos ODL

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Comments

Prashant · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-25 13:00:47Z

An app(a running process) can be closed by it's name using it's PID(Process ID) and by using psutil module. Install it in cmd using the command:

pip install psutil

After installing, run the code given below in any .py file:

import psutil
def close_app(app_name):
    running_apps=psutil.process_iter(['pid','name']) #returns names of running processes
    found=False
    for app in running_apps:
        sys_app=app.info.get('name').split('.')[0].lower()

        if sys_app in app_name.split() or app_name in sys_app:
            pid=app.info.get('pid') #returns PID of the given app if found running
            
            try: #deleting the app if asked app is running.(It raises error for some windows apps)
                app_pid = psutil.Process(pid)
                app_pid.terminate()
                found=True
            except: pass
            
        else: pass
    if not found:
        print(app_name+" not found running")
    else:
        print(app_name+'('+sys_app+')'+' closed')

close_app('chrome')

After running the code above you may see the following output if google chrome was running:

>>> chrome(xyz) closed

Feel free to comment in case of any error

mehtaarn000 · Accepted Answer · 2020-10-16 19:23:13Z

0

On OS X:

Create a shell script and put:

killall Application

Replace Application with a running app of your choice.

In the same directory as this shell script, make a python file. In the python file, put these two lines of code:

from subprocess import Popen
Popen('sh shell.sh', shell=True)

Replace shell.sh with the name of your created shell script.

answered Oct 16, 2020 at 19:23

mehtaarn000

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2 Comments

Joan Arau Over a year ago

Is it possible to "gently" kill the app? so for example I want to kill excel but I still want it to ask me to save the sheet?

mehtaarn000 Over a year ago

@JoanArau I'm not really sure. Killing an app immediately terminates the process, so you shouldn't use that solution.

Nothing · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-29 03:11:29Z

0

from AppOpener import close
close("whatsapp") 
close("telegram, brave") 
close("name of ur application")

#pip install AppOpener

answered Apr 29, 2023 at 3:11

Nothing

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