Batch file that closes all programs except certain ones

Question

I'm trying to write a batch file (or powershell script) that closes all programs with active windows, except certain programs. I also don't want just any program Windows is running to be closed, just programs I've opened. I also can't program a list of what programs tokill, so I can't simply do this:

@echo off
set programs[0] = program1;
set programs[1] = program2; etc;

for %%a in (%programs%) do (
  taskkill /F /im %%a
  echo/
)

I would like something that looks like this (<...> indicating parts I don't know):

@echo off
set safeList[0] = program1;
set safeList[1] = program2; etc;

set activePrograms = <get all active programs that aren't basic windows processes, startup programs, etc.>

for %%a in (%activePrograms%) do (
  if(<%%a not found in safeList>) (
    taskkill /F /im %%a
    echo/
  )
)

Obviously, the activePrograms part should not include basic windows tasks (ie. explorer.exe), as that would be chaotic. I would like to not have to define every single running task in safeList.

Answer 1

if you just want to close the programs that you open. which is shown in task manager as App

for this list, you can use the get-process command as follow:

Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.MainWindowTitle -and $_.Description -and $_.Name -ne "ApplicationFrameHost"}

and in order to terminate this apps you can pipe the output to the command Stop-Process as follow:

 Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.MainWindowTitle -and $_.Description -and $_.Name -ne "ApplicationFrameHost"}  | Stop-Process

Answer 2

This script should terminate all programs runing under your username and NOT runing as windows service. UNTESTED

for /f tokens=2 %a in ('tasklist /V ^| findstr /I /C:"%COMPUTERNAME%\%USERNAME%" /C:"Console"') do taskkill /PID %a

according to iRon`s comment, you should exclude some system needed programs like explorer.exe

Answer 3

You can try with powershell (not tested)

Get-Process | ? {$_.MainWindowTitle -ne ""} | Stop-Process