Unable to kill instances of cmd.exe on Win XP

Question

A new command prompt pops up when I debug a windows console application and it doesn't go away when application finishes. I have to plenty (in fact 18) of them open and it is annoying.

The following doesn't help:

1. Pressing "X" button on top right of command prompt.

2. Go to task manager and kill the cmd.exe.

3. kill/pskill commands etc.

I know the last resort would be to reboot the machine. But I want to avoid that. Is there a option? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Are you using Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 by any chance?

There are/were issues with a specific Windows hotfix that causes this sort of behavior, and there have been threads about this issue:

Debugged Program Window Won't Close

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/debugger/archive/2010/03/11/help-my-console-windows-won-t-go-away.aspx

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsdebug/thread/e6d4a4f5-7002-401a-90e1-6174d7f9e3ca

A fix is available now, and can be downloaded from this Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982551