Start and stop multiple programs

Question

I want to start Spotify, Toastify and EZblocker at once, and exit them, if they are running at once.

Starting them is easy, just the start command, stopping isn't, I saw many answers on SO, but I don't know batch and I don't know how to do if else, it should be simple but I have never learnt batch. Plus I was wondering if autohotkey would be a better solution. I'm on windows 10.

Note that Toastify is able to start and stop Spotify, therefore I just need to start and stop EZblocker and Toastify.

Answer 1

How about a .bat file that closes the apps on click?

Paste the following into notepad and save as a .bat file

set EXE=spotify.exe

FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF %%x == %EXE% goto FOUND

start "" "PATH TO SPOTIFY.EXE"
start "" "PATH TO TOASTIFY.EXE"
start "" "PATH TO EZBLOCKER.EXE"
goto FIN
:FOUND

taskkill /IM spotify.exe
taskkill /IM toastify.exe
taskkill /IM ezblocker.exe

:FIN

• set EXE - Your executable file (spotify.exe etc.)
• FOR /F %%x IN ('tasklist /NH /FI "IMAGENAME eq %EXE%"') DO IF %%x == %EXE% goto FOUND - check if EXE alias, spotify.exe, is running.
• start "" "PATH TO SPOTIFY.EXE" - Launch spotify and other apps if not running.
• taskkill /IM spotify.exe- Kill spotify and other apps if running.

Get the process name from the task manager and change the running .exe as applicable.

Where /IM will send the terminate signal to the application. However, for certain application such as Spotify, the application might simply minimize to the taskbar. Use /F to force close them in that case.