[AccessD] MSACCESS.EXE Still Visible in Windows Task Manager after DoCmd.Quit Command

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed Jan 5 17:33:56 CST 2011


 > Do you think that there is an improvement in "Garbage Collection" between Access 2007 and Access 
2010?

No.

Microsoft is not targeting developers with Access.  GC is a programming issue.  You are supposed to 
be giving up programming and moving back to macros, right?

I would add a comment about pretty toolbars but all that has been said (by me!) a million times.

Having moved on to .Net I am absolutely uninvolved and uninspired by anything Access.

I am in Access maintenance mode.  ;)  No new designs if I can help it.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

On 1/5/2011 6:01 PM, Brad Marks wrote:
> John,
>
> Do you think that there is an improvement in "Garbage Collection"
> between Access 2007 and Access 2010?
>
> Thanks,
> Brad
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
> Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 2:37 PM
> To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] MSACCESS.EXE Still Visible in Windows Task
> Manager after DoCmd.Quit Command
>
>   >  I am curious as to why this is happening.
>
> Are you a programmer?
>
> My experience is that this occurs when the VBA garbage collector takes a
> smoke break.  ;)
>
> Seriously, there is this thing called a garbage collector and it is
> supposed to do things like close
> ADO and DAO recordsets and release the pointers to them.  If you save
> pointers to controls in
> classes, the GC is supposed to release these pointers when the class
> closes.
>
> The GC in VBA is notoriously unreliable.  AFAICT it is possible to store
> a pointer to a control pn a
> form in the class for that form for example and when the form closes it
> does not correctly release
> these pointers.
>
> When this happens, Access still has objects open internally, forms close
> "but not really" and so
> Access closes, "but not really".
>
> When this happens, you have no choice but to kill the process in task
> manager.
>
> The answer is to *ALWAYS* clean up your own mess, close your own objects
> that have a close method,
> then programmatically set the pointer to that object to nothing.
>
> It is very tough to always do this, and when you forget, Access starts
> to not close correctly (again).
>
> John W. Colby
> www.ColbyConsulting.com
>
> On 1/5/2011 3:11 PM, Brad Marks wrote:
>> Occasionally, we notice that an Access 2007 application is still
> visible
>> in the Windows Task Manager after the "DoCmd.Quit acQuitSaveNone" is
>> issued.
>>
>> (Even after waiting 10 minutes after the DoCmd.Quit command is issued)
>>
>> To the user, the Access application has disappeared, but it still is
>> visible in the Windows Task Manager under the Processes Tab
>>
>> We can, of course, kill off the application in the Windows Task
> Manager,
>> but we would prefer to not do this.
>>
>> I am curious as to why this is happening.
>>
>> Is there something that can be done in the Access application to
> prevent
>> this?
>>
>> Have other people seen this happen?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brad
>>



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