how to close a window from a different process

Question

I have a c# application which I want to instruct to shutdown nicely, from a different process. I also want to be able to ask it to open its main window. I have a reference to its main window handle.

I know I can do it using elaborate schemes such as remoting or WCF. the question is can I do it using simpler mechanisms such as window messages, or the OnClose event handlers of the window in the c# application

Answer 1

Pinvoke SendMessage() to send the WM_CLOSE message to the app's main window. Asking it to open its main window is probably going to be quite difficult, you cannot obtain the window handle until the window is created. Process.Start() would be the normal way.

A low cost alternative to WCF and superior to pinvoke is a named pipe or a socket to interface with the app. This requires being able to modify the source code of the app.

Answer 2

Process.CloseMainWindow

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.process.closemainwindow.aspx