0

I automate a process with Task Scheduler that occasionally leaves EXCEL.EXE processes hung in the background and these interfere with future processes. I found a way to list these to a file with a .bat code. The scheduled task starts code that calls a .vbs file that executes a macro in Excel. So Task Scheduler can't be set up to cancel the process (PID) if it hangs.

tasklist /V /FO csv /FI "IMAGENAME eq EXCEL.EXE" > C:\[path]\Exceltasks.csv

creates...(example)

"Image Name","PID","Session Name","Session#","Mem Usage","Status","User Name","CPU Time","Window Title"
"EXCEL.EXE","62020","Console","1","622,528 K","Running","[network]\[user]","0:03:31","Work Record.xlsx - Excel"
"EXCEL.EXE","47536","Console","1","78,760 K","Running","[network]\[user]","0:00:00","N/A"
"EXCEL.EXE","61472","Console","1","620,752 K","Running","[network]\[user]","0:03:38","N/A"
"EXCEL.EXE","54156","Console","1","358,648 K","Not Responding","[network]\[user]","0:00:20","HardwareMonitorWindow"
"EXCEL.EXE","54604","Console","1","77,180 K","Running","[network]\[user]","0:00:00","N/A"
"EXCEL.EXE","45948","Console","1","368,400 K","Running","[network]\[user]","0:00:24","Publishing..."

Then I have this python script that will run through that file and uses taskkill to clear them out.

import csv
import os
FindValue = "EXCEL.EXE"
Substring = "- Excel"

with open("C:/[path]/Exceltasks.csv") as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f)
    for row in reader:
        if (row[0]=="INFO: No tasks are running which match the specified criteria."):
            print ("No " + FindValue + " processes running")
            break
        else:
            print ("Check PID" + row[1])
            if(row[0]==FindValue):
                if(row[8].find("- Excel")!=-1):
                    print("Don't kill task " + row[1])
                else:
                    Killstring = "taskkill /F /PID " + row[1]
                    print Killstring
                    os.system('cmd /k '+ Killstring)

The first if will break out if there are no EXCEL.EXE processes. The second if works, but only on the first of what is often 3+ EXEL.EXE processes.

How do I get the for loop to not stop after the first os taskkill command?

martineau
  • 119,623
  • 25
  • 170
  • 301
Mark Boucher
  • 21
  • 4
  • 1
    Don't use `os.system` at all. Use `subprocess`, which lets you create a subprocess that *doesn't* block your script, but runs in the background. Also, looking at your code, look in the `os` module for a function that can do what you need without leaving Python at all. – chepner Jan 07 '22 at 19:27
  • 1
    Off-topic: You're not skipping the header row of the CSV file — you need to call `next(reader)` once before entering the `for` loop. – martineau Jan 07 '22 at 19:50
  • Are you sure, you want `cmd /k` and not `cmd /c`? See `cmd /?` for how they differ. – Stephan Jan 07 '22 at 21:11
  • 1
    Instead of running `TaskList` to output it results to a text file, then parsing it with a python script, what is wrong with just using `TaskKill` to close all `not responding` instances of `excel.exe`? e.g. `%SystemRoot%\System32\taskkill.exe /F /Fi "Status eq Not Responding" /Im EXCEL.EXE 1>NUL 2>&1`. – Compo Jan 07 '22 at 22:02

0 Answers0