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How to wait for a process to terminate before executing another process in a batch file? Let's say I have a process notepad.exe that I need to kill before executing wordpad.exe. Then, when wordpad.exe is terminated, I need to launch notepad.exe again. How do I do that?

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    @sarnold The problem is that Win32 is ... Win32. Some programs (like write) will detach from the parent process, while other programs (like notepad) do not. Commented Nov 18, 2011 at 4:39
  • @pst: I thought you had to specifically use start to get the detachment... Oh wow. That's horrible. Commented Nov 18, 2011 at 4:41
  • @sarnold Oops: notepad doesn't detach, write does. It's something relating to the write program, not necessarily Win32, although many UI programs (not meant to be called from a shell) seem to work like this. I am fairly certain CreateProcess is related though. Commented Nov 18, 2011 at 4:42
  • @Apoc I would include a time-line explanation of what goes on, with a sample script with echos between the process to show detachment that occurs. Without the detaching the processes would run sequentially. Commented Nov 18, 2011 at 4:45

9 Answers 9

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Use start /w programname to wait for the end of programname

START /W notepad ECHO Back from notepad START /W wordpad ECHO Back from wordpad START /W notepad
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7 Comments

This is much simpler than a complete batch and works perfectly. Note that you will need to add the title argument if using quotes for your program name. See help start for more info.
This solution is good only when the batch file is also starting the process and not checking for an existing process.
This doesn't work if you want to start two or more processes at the same time and wait for all of them to complete. That's why Mitch Buz Stringer's answer is more desirable IMO.
And it doesn't work if the started program detaches from its calling process (see comments on question).
what if you're starting a copy command, how do you exit the 2nd command prompt?
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Try something like this...

@ECHO OFF PSKILL NOTEPAD START "" "C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe" :LOOP PSLIST wordpad >nul 2>&1 IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( GOTO CONTINUE ) ELSE ( ECHO Wordpad is still running TIMEOUT /T 5 GOTO LOOP ) :CONTINUE NOTEPAD

I used PSLIST and PSEXEC, but you could also use TASKKILL and TASKLIST. The >nul 2>&1 is just there to hide all the output from PSLIST. The SLEEP 5 line is not required, but is just there to restrict how often you check if WordPad is still running.

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9 Comments

It looks like TASKLIST doesn't set the ERRORLEVE. You can pipe the output of TASKLIST through FIND as a workaround. Something like this, TASKLIST | FIND /I "wordpad".
This is pretty weak. Use start /wait like nature intended.
@DavidHeffernan START /WAIT is fine if you want everything to stop until the process completes. My simple example doesn't really show it, but you can use this technique to kick-off a process and then do some other stuff, but not go on after a certain point until that first process has ended.
This also works if the batch file didn't start the process, which is handy sometimes.
I have a windows service deployment script that stops a service, then deploys the files, but the .exe hasn't always completely exited after the net stop call finishes, and the files are locked. This approach is exactly what I needed to ensure the service has actually stopped before copying the files. Thanks.
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This is an updated version of aphoria's Answer.

I Replaced PSLIST and PSEXEC with TASKKILL and TASKLIST`. As they seem to work better, I couldn't get PSLIST to run in Windows 7.

Also replaced Sleep with TIMEOUT.

This Was everything i needed to get the script running well, and all the additions was provided by the great guys who posted the comments.

Also if there is a delay before the .exe starts it might be worth inserting a Timeout before the :loop.

@ECHO OFF TASKKILL NOTEPAD START "" "C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe" :LOOP tasklist | find /i "WORDPAD" >nul 2>&1 IF ERRORLEVEL 1 ( GOTO CONTINUE ) ELSE ( ECHO Wordpad is still running Timeout /T 5 /Nobreak GOTO LOOP ) :CONTINUE NOTEPAD
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5 Comments

This is not an "updated" version of my answer. It is a copy of my answer that just replaces PSLIST and PSEXEC with TASKKILL and TASKLIST, which I listed as alternatives in my answer.
Thank you. The best answer if the process happens to spawn additional processes as the /wait solution wont work. Simply use similar code for the additional processes to solve such situations.
@aphoria: I think he posted this because psexec and pslist are not part of (some?) Windows, they are sysinternals programs. Also, if they are run for the first time, they pop up a dialog box to agree to license terms. Not ideal to use, unless you control the target computer and can pre-install these tools. And it is definitely "updated": you need to know how to use find (or findstr) to make this work (pslist is easier in that respect). Though an edit of your answer with this version would have sufficed too, imo.
@Abel I listed TASKKILL and TASKLIST as alternatives in my answer before this answer was posted. Also, not that it matters for my answer, but the SysInternals utilities support a /accepteula switch.
@aphoria, Exactly, and your answer is good. This one helps people that cannot rely on those tools being there, it's quite different, and gives you credit and helps me and others. Didn't know about that switch, thanks.
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I liked the "START /W" answer, though for my situation I found something even more basic. My processes were console applications. And in my ignorance I thought I would need something special in BAT syntax to make sure that the 1st one completed before the 2nd one started. However BAT appears to make a distinction between console apps and windows apps, and it executes them a little differently. The OP shows that window apps will get launched as an asynchronous call from BAT. But for console apps, that are invoked synchronously, inside the same command window as the BAT itself is running in.

For me it was actually better not to use "START /W", because everything could run inside one command window. The annoying thing about "START /W" is that it will spawn a new command window to execute your console application in.

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With the switch /B it will execute in the same window.
Ah I see. But then is there any difference between calling "My.exe" directly, versus "START /B My.exe"? It seems like the same thing.
2 
call process1 call process2

in this case the process2 will not begin until process1 have finished.

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You should read the question (and the comments) more carefully. In the first comment it's explained why CALL isn't a general solution
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This works and is even simpler. If you remove ECHO-s, it will be even smaller:

REM REM DEMO - how to launch several processes in parallel, and wait until all of them finish. REM @ECHO OFF start "!The Title!" Echo Close me manually! start "!The Title!" Echo Close me manually! :waittofinish echo At least one process is still running... timeout /T 2 /nobreak >nul tasklist.exe /fi "WINDOWTITLE eq !The Title!" | find ":" >nul if errorlevel 1 goto waittofinish echo Finished! PAUSE
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fwiw: on my windows 10 laptop this worked when I saved aboe to a .bat file and called it from command prompt (it failed when I cut and pasted to command window)
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'start /w' does NOT work in all cases. The original solution works great. However, on some machines, it is wise to put a delay immediately after starting the executable. Otherwise, the task name may not appear in the task list yet, and the loop will not work as expected (someone pointed that out). The 2 delays can be combined and put at the top of the loop. Can also get rid of the 'else' just to shorten. Example of 2 programs running sequentially:

c:\prog1.exe :loop1 timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul 2>&1 tasklist | find /i "prog1.exe" >nul 2>&1 if errorlevel 1 goto cont1 goto loop1 :cont1 c:\prog2.exe :loop2 timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul 2>&1 tasklist | find /i "prog2.exe" >nul 2>&1 if errorlevel 1 goto cont2 goto loop2 :cont2

john refling

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This worked great for me. I used it to run pyinstaller. I needed to be sure that the pyinstaller process had finished generating its /dist/... folder output before copying some config files to the same output folder. If I didn't wait for the end of the pyinstaller process, the output folder would disappear for some reason.
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This is my adaptation johnrefling's. This work also in WindowsXP; in my case i start the same application at the end, because i want reopen it with different parametrs. My application is a WindowForm .NET 

@echo off taskkill -im:MyApp.exe :loop1 tasklist | find /i "MyApp.exe" >nul 2>&1 if errorlevel 1 goto cont1 echo "Waiting termination of process..." :: timeout /t 1 /nobreak >nul 2>&1 ::this don't work in windows XP :: from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1672338/how-to-sleep-for-five-seconds-in-a-batch-file-cmd/33286113#33286113 typeperf "\System\Processor Queue Length" -si 1 -sc 1 >nul s goto loop1 :cont1 echo "Process terminated, start new application" START "<SYMBOLIC-TEXT-NAME>" "<full-path-of-MyApp2.exe>" "MyApp2-param1" "MyApp2-param2" pause
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Piping to anything makes it wait, even for all background child processes. The same is true in powershell.

notepad | more notepad | findstr .* powershell notepad | more
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