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I was looking up the start and tasklist commands, and i noticed 2 things. They both had references to a window title.

start "myTest" /b somefile argA
tasklist /fi "WindowTitle eq myTest"

the thing that confuses me is that the task list isnt returning any matches to me. Is there something i am doing wrong, or do these not reference the same title

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3 Answers 3

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They sure do refer to the same title. It is the title that appears within the top border of your window. The problem is your START /B switch causes the process to be launched within the same console window, and a window can only have one title. START does not change the title of the window if the /B switch is used.

Run your START command with the /B switch, and you will see that your window title does not change.

Now run the START command without /B and you will see a new window with the correct title. Your TASKLIST command will now find the correct process.

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  • maybe start then is not the command I want? I am trying to launch somefile as a passive process, not needing a command line. I want to launch it and then carry on with the script, while still have a pointer / PID to the process so i can kill it later? It is then possible to do something like: start "myTest" somefile argA & like in unix to break the console-process dependancy?
    – Fallenreaper
    Apr 12, 2016 at 17:22
  • That only seems to work if the command you are starting is actually a cmd shell. start "testprogram" "notepad" followed by tasklist /v | findstr -i testprogram does not find anything.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Apr 12, 2016 at 17:22
  • See Trying to track a PID in windows created from the pub command and comments for the background to this question. We have been puzzling over it all afternoon :;
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Apr 12, 2016 at 17:23
  • @DavidPostill - I believe a more generic way of stating the issue is - Not all programs allow you to set the window title via the START command. Many programs override any value that START tries to establish.
    – dbenham
    Apr 19, 2016 at 16:49
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Give a try for this example to start Chrome.exe and kill all its PID(s) after launching it !

@echo off
set MyProcess=Chrome.exe
start "" %MyProcess%
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f "TOKENS=2" %%a in ('tasklist /NH /FI "imagename eq %MyProcess%"') do (
    Set PID=%%a & echo The PID of %MyProcess% = !PID! 
    Echo( & Echo To Kill all PID of "%MyProcess%" , just Hit any key & pause 
    Taskkill /PID !PID! /F /T
)
EndLocal
pause
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-1

you can easily check for the Pid from your Process you are looking for and kill them later anytime if needed with

 taskkill /pid %PID%

keep in mind that you need the double space after Administator if you search for an cmd process.

Here an fully example how to use it:

https://gist.github.com/robinrm/ecd1ceb1fc295b2e7b125ca82f42cafe

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