For Loop, List, and TaskKill in Windows Batch Commands

Question

I want to create a list of executables and then create a for loop to taskkill all of the executables in the list. I used this as reference: Create list or arrays in Windows Batch , but I still cannot figure it out.

This is what I tried...

set list = A B C D
for %%a in (%list%) do ( 
taskkill /F %%a
)

Answer 1

Method 1: setting the list from within the batch file:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
:assuming you want to kill the calc.exe, paint.exe and notepad.exe processes
set list=calc paint notepad
for %%a in (!list!) do (
set process=%%a
taskkill /f /im !process!.exe
)
endlocal

save the above batch file as method1.bat or include it in your batch file somewhere suitable.

Method 2: have an external list of executables: make a list of the executables you want to terminate, name it list.txt and make sure the list and the batch file are both in the same folder. e.g

List.txt:

notepad.exe
paint.exe
calc.exe

your batch file:

@echo off
::save this batch file as method2.bat or include in your existing batch file
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "delims=" %%e in (list.txt) do (
set process=%%e
taskkill /f /im !process!
)
endlocal

hope that helped!