How to restart outlook (close then open outlook) with C# console app

Question

i want to restart Outlook everytime i open the console app , i deploy this app on pc server because no one will handle this when holiday.

Why i want to restart outlook ? because outlook in server pc receive many emails , we have apps to take the attachment and download it everyday. But the problem is sometimes the email is stuck , and we must restart outlook to gain the email that stuck.

I already try some code, and for process.start -> it works that can open outlook, but i cant close the duplicate outlook (the old one)

namespace CloseOpenOutlook
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {


            Process process = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
            var dupl = Process.GetProcessesByName(process.ProcessName);


            foreach (var p in dupl)
            {
                if (p.ProcessName == "OUTLOOK")
                {
                    p.Kill();

                }
            }

            Process myProcess = Process.Start("OUTLOOK");
        }
    }
}

Expected result = it will close the old outlook and open the new one

Actual result = it open the new one and not close the old one so it will be 2 Outlooks

I dont know where it goes wrong, already try from many source but still not working

Jeremy Thompson · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-16T02:38:41.193

There is two main ways to close Outlook using C#.

1) Kill the process, do it using the ProcessID otherwise you will close all instances of Outlook:

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
public static extern int GetWindowThreadProcessId(HandleRef handle, out int processId);

private void OpenOutlookAndKillProcess()
{
   int pid = -1;
   //Get PID
   outlookApp = new Outlook.Application();
   HandleRef hwnd = new HandleRef(outlookApp, (IntPtr)outlookApp.Hwnd);
   GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd, out pid);
   .....
   //Finally
   KillProcess(pid,"OUTLOOK");
}

private void KillProcess(int pid, string processName)
{
    System.Diagnostics.Process[] AllProcesses = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName(processName);
    foreach (System.Diagnostics.Process process in AllProcesses)
    {
       if (process.Id == pid) process.Kill();
    }
    AllProcesses = null;
}

2) The better method is to use AutoReleaseComObject or the original VSTO-Contrib, you can see one of my answers here on how to use it: Closing Excel Workbook - System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException : Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A03EC

What you're encountering is explained here (it relates to Outlook the way same as Excel, Word, Powerpoint): How do I properly clean up Excel interop objects?

You may find its easier to just 1) kill the process but better programmers will use 2).

How to restart outlook (close then open outlook) with C# console app

1 Answers1