Orphaned VSTA.exe

Q:

What do you do if your application process has crashed or terminated abruptly, with no chance to unload the IDE/DTE?  (In this case, the VSTA.exe is orphaned but continues to run.)

A:

You should look at this sample:

IPHTerminateOrphanedVST, uses a global mutext to start one, and only one, simple observer thread. The observer thread continues to execute while the vsta process is alive, whether or not a project is open. The observer thread periodically checks for existence of the hostProcess. If there is no hostProcess running, and there is an orphaned vsta.exe, the observer thread shuts down the orphan vsta process before exiting.