Perhaps you can start with this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;176391
How To Programmatically Close a Single Instance of a Windows-Based Program

I expect that you will have to use the terminateprocess function it
describes and says to use with caution. But I don't know. Then again,
these processes may not have windows (but I think they would).

This may have some useful information although not directly applicable:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;231844
How To Detect If an Application Has Stopped Responding



--
Regards,
Tom Ogilvy


"Tod" wrote in message
oups.com...
Okay. Actually there are a few dozen excel applications being open (not
all at once of course) and updated through scheduled tasks. I didn't
write them, but am having to contend with the mess that many of them
leave behind. I'm fixing the code in them as I go, but was hoping for
an interim way of closing these open instance of Excel before they
totally hose the memory on the server.