July 13, 2002

Write a console utility to list processes

The Process class provides all you need to create a command-line utility that lists all the processes running on the system and all the related information. This utility is therefore similar to the Windows Task Manager, except you can run it from the command prompt. All processes are sorted alphabetically.

Write a console utility to kill a process

The System.Diagnostics.Process class exposes two methods that let you kill a process: CloseMainWindow should be used with processes that have a graphical interface, whereas the Kill method should be used for apps without a user interface (or those whose main window is disable and can’t process the WM_CLOSE message). It’s

Wait for a process to terminate

You can use the VB.NET Shell command (in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace) to run an external process and wait for its termination, but you can get better control if you work directly with the Process class in the System.Diagnostics namespace. You can start a process with the Start static method (which

FormatMemorySize – Format a value in bytes

Enum FormatMemorySizeUnits BestGuess Bytes Kilobytes Megabytes GigabytesEnd Enum’ convert a number of bytes into Kbytes, Megabytes, or GigabytesFunction FormatMemorySize(ByVal value As Long, _ ByVal unit As FormatMemorySizeUnits, Optional ByVal decimalDigits As _ Integer = 2, Optional ByVal omitThousandSeps As Boolean = False) As String ‘ simple error checking If value

FormatValue – Format a value in a column of given width

Enum FormatColumnAlignment Left Center RightEnd Enum’ format a value in a column of given width and with specified alignment’ using the specified pad character Function FormatValue(ByVal value As String, ByVal width As Integer, _ ByVal alignment As FormatColumnAlignment, Optional ByVal padchar As Char = _ ” “c) As String Function