running pskill.exe "access denied"

Question

Im attempting to kill a process remotely by using pskill.

From the command line, pskill works great, but when trying the same command in C# Im getting an access denied error.

    var startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo {
                                            FileName = "pskill.exe",
                                            Arguments = "-t \\" + _currentMachine + 
                                                        " -u BobSmith -p Pass123 " + _currentService + 
                                                        " /acceptEULA"
                                         };

    try {
        using (Process exeProcess = Process.Start(startInfo)) {
            exeProcess.WaitForExit();
        }
    } catch {
        Console.WriteLine("Cannot forcibly kill process.");
    }

I have even tried creating a .bat file which runs fine manually but I get the same error when trying to call the .bat from C#.

Im on an XP machine attempting to access a win 2003 server.

Answer 1

I would double check your credentials. It is either that or your process is 'locked'.

Answer 2

In C# characters in strings are escaped by default. The string you assign to Arguments contains two escape characters. I suspect that they are turned into a single back slash. Add an @ in front of the string definition to resolve this.

  Arguments = @"-t \\" + _currentMachine + 

In any case I would suggest adding code to write the whole command line out to a text file and check that it is as you need it. If the text file has a bat extension can you run it successfully?

Answer 3

For the next guy...

pskill.exe needed to be run in Win2000 compatibility mode.