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End Process vs End Process Tree

Mav
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

End Process vs End Process Tree

Occasionally I have to resort to using End Process to recover from a program crash or when it seems to be 'stuck'.
But what is the difference between End Process and End Process Tree? I have tried both and can't tell any difference in action(s) taken apart from the program quitting and able to be restarted.

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

3 REPLIES 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: End Process vs End Process Tree

When an application starts up it get a Process ID (PID) this process can of course spawn other processes and it is this these processes that make the process tree. When you kill the process you can leave others dangling which can have adverse effects. But if you kill the process tree all sub processes spawned by the primary process are killed first with the main PID killed last. If you are in any doubt use kill tree.
Mav
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22,692
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Re: End Process vs End Process Tree

I kinda thought that would be the answer. I tend to use End Process Tree most of the time anyway.
Thanks.

Forum Moderator and Customer
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
He who feared he would not succeed sat still

kmilburn
Grafter
Posts: 911
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: End Process vs End Process Tree

If you use a decent task manager like Process explorer,  it'll show you the process tree too.