How to wait for a process to terminate to execute another process in batch file

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

'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

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

call process1
call process2

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