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

Use start /w programname to wait for the end of programname

START /W notepadECHO Back from notepad  START /W wordpadECHO Back from wordpadSTART /W notepad

Try something like this...

@ECHO OFFPSKILL NOTEPADSTART "" "C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe":LOOPPSLIST wordpad >nul 2>&1IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (  GOTO CONTINUE) ELSE (  ECHO Wordpad is still running  TIMEOUT /T 5  GOTO LOOP):CONTINUENOTEPAD

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 OFFTASKKILL NOTEPADSTART "" "C:\Program Files\Windows NT\Accessories\wordpad.exe":LOOPtasklist | find /i "WORDPAD" >nul 2>&1IF ERRORLEVEL 1 (  GOTO CONTINUE) ELSE (  ECHO Wordpad is still running  Timeout /T 5 /Nobreak  GOTO LOOP):CONTINUENOTEPAD