Launchbox/Bigbox doesn't fully close on exit

[alnyden]

Hi,

I've had this issue for a long time. I quit Launchbox or Bigbox but it's still running in the task manager. Thus, I can't switch between the two versions, because I get the message "another instance of this app is open." I have to close via the task manager each time. 

The new info, and the reason I'm posting this again, is becasue due to a hard drive crash I recently had to revert to a much older version of Launchbox (somewhere around 8 I think). Interestingly, I did not have that issue with the older version. As soon as I updated Launchbox, the closing issue returned.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this, and if they have any suggestions for how to solve?

Thanks!

Rich

[Jayinem]

I had the same problem for a long time, and decided to make an autohotkey script that can kill it from task manager by hitting a key or key combo of your choosing and can even restart Launchbox after all with just that single hotkey. I can give it to you and help you set it up (if you have no autohotkey experience) if you'd like. But in my case, it just seemed to have went away on it's own I don't know how to actually fix it.  Possibly the only way is to totally start with a fresh install of Windows on your computer which obviously is not ideal. 

 

But it's not actually only an issue on new versions. I am still using a Launchbox from 2020 because every time I try to update I'd have to reinstall like 700 games and there's no way so I keep the old one and it happened on it. 

Edited yesterday at 07:58 PM by Jayinem

[NickCulture12]

This has always been an issue, i gave up on trying to resolve it.

[Jayinem]

I just made this script it has two files it can kill both Launchbox and Big Box at the same time and neither should be in task manager, and then it restarts Launchbox.exe automatically, essentially solving the problem. It does require installing autohotkey which in itself is not hard just go to autohotkey.com install it to your computer and download the .vbs below file put it in the same folder where your Launchbox.exe folder is as well as download the .ahk script and put in the same location. You just double click the .ahk to make it an active script and you can press ctrl alt t over Big Box (which in autohotkey language is ^!t) you can change the keys if you like, even to just a single key like for example scrolllock or F4. Let me know if you any help is needed, goes for anyone. 

You can right click on the .ahk and make it an .exe and click on that if you prefer but either .ahk or .exe can be ran, then right click on the one you want and make a shortcut and put it in startup folder that way it's ongoing when you restart your computer. There's even a way to make an autohotkey script to do it with controller, but I usually use joytokey to map keys to my controller. 

Just make sure Big Box and is the active window when doing the key combo, or just double clicking killlaunchbox.vbs will kill both as well without big box being the window you're on actively, but it's more practical probably to use keyboard key(s) or controller I would think. I tested it myself, worked fine.  

Kill Big Box Ctrl + Alt + T.ahkKillLaunchbox.vbs

Edited 14 hours ago by Jayinem

[alnyden]

Thank you for posting this, I'll give it a try!

 

[JoeViking245]

9 minutes ago, alnyden said:

Thank you for posting this, I'll give it a try!

One [major] thing to consider is why it's still running in Task Manager after exiting.

(more so with LaunchBox) When it exits, it closes the UI [right away] so you can go about doing other 'computer' stuff.  After closing the UI, LaunchBox then goes about saving any changes (e.g. adding platform/games, editing stuff, etc.) that were cached during your session, in the background. Thus still present in Task Manager and not instantly being able to restart it [right away].

"Killing" it in Task Manager will essentially erase any changes that have not yet been saved to your drive.  The amount changes you made (as well as the speed of your system) will determine how long it actually stays in Task Manager after "closing".  I've seen it take from nary a couple seconds to upwards of 45 minutes.  Do NOT take the 45 minutes as a measure of any sort of norm.  That was on an old, slow arse machine, and I had done a MASSIVE import.  Use it as just an [exaggerated] indicator that the more changes made, the longer it may take.

The takeaway here is, let it finish "doing its thing" in the background, without "killing it" and potentially compromising your build.  Make a mental note of changes you made and then take note of how long it actually stays in Task Manager.  Even if it appears nothing is happening, wait it out.  

If you find you're making little-to-no changes and it stays in Task Manager after exiting 10-minutes (that's just a round number I threw out there) and doesn't go away, then it should be looked into further.

 

On a related note, you may want to look at and upvote this Feature Request if you agree with it: Feedback - Seamless Switching Between LaunchBox and Big Box When Launching Executables 

[Jayinem]

4 minutes ago, JoeViking245 said:

One [major] thing to consider is why it's still running in Task Manager after exiting.

(more so with LaunchBox) When it exits, it closes the UI [right away] so you can go about doing other 'computer' stuff.  After closing the UI, LaunchBox then goes about saving any changes (e.g. adding platform/games, editing stuff, etc.) that were cached during your session, in the background. Thus still present in Task Manager and not instantly being able to restart it [right away].

"Killing" it in Task Manager will essentially erase any changes that have not yet been saved to your drive.  The amount changes you made (as well as the speed of your system) will determine how long it actually stays in Task Manager after "closing".  I've seen it take from nary a couple seconds to upwards of 45 minutes.  Do NOT take the 45 minutes as a measure of any sort of norm.  That was on an old, slow arse machine, and I had done a MASSIVE import.  Use it as just an [exaggerated] indicator that the more changes made, the longer it may take.

The takeaway here is, let it finish "doing its thing" in the background, without "killing it" and potentially compromising your build.  Make a mental note of changes you made and then take note of how long it actually stays in Task Manager.  Even if it appears nothing is happening, wait it out.  

If you find you're making little-to-no changes and it stays in Task Manager after exiting 10-minutes (that's just a round number I threw out there) and doesn't go away, then it should be looked into further.

 

On a related note, you may want to look at and upvote this Feature Request if you agree with it: Feedback - Seamless Switching Between LaunchBox and Big Box When Launching Executables 

I agree with what you're saying in essence, but you can't make any changes in Big Box anyway. I've done it hundreds of times with no effect what so ever. This script is only meant if someone is using Big Box and wants to switch to Launchbox not the other way around also not if they just have Launchbox open. Ultimately though I do agree, if possible find the culprit of the problem and fix it, but I was never able to. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Jayinem