VB Forum / General / August 2004

Just to amplify.

Gaurav's suggestion is excellent and complete, but you should remember that
Windows, unlike some other OSs, provides only two ways to 'terminate' an
application. First, you can ask it politely if it doesn't mind quitting. If
the application listens and decides to shut itself down, then no problem.
But, second, if it ignores you. Your only recourse is to sneak up behind it
and garrote it.

The latter can occasionally have rather disturbing effects on any open
resources, memory, or other components that depend on the process, and may
leave the OS in less than a healthy state.

Creating a 'Boston Strangler' application may appear a convenient solution,
but may cause problems when released on the community at large.

-ralph