MATLAB doesn't exit, all windows close, but MATLAB.exe persists in Task Manager

Well, the title says it all. Is this a common problem? What could cause and fix this?

I'm on Win8x64 and I use R2014b. When I quit MATLAB, either by pressing the cross or typing

exit

in the command window, all open MATLAB windows close after a few seconds, but the process remains in the Task Manager. It takes a lot of memory too: the usual amount MATLAB uses (usually over 500MB). When I launch MATLAB again, I get a second MATLAB.exe and the first one remains unchanged. I can kill the process by force closing it in the Task Manager, but I'm not comfortable with doing that often and the extra clicks are just annoying.

Answer 1

[Debarati Banerjee]

It is a known issue with MATLAB R2014b. As a workaround MATLAB can me made to terminate itself via a call to the operating system. You can place the following lines of code in a script named "finish.m" and place the script on the MATLAB path. The codes should be as follows:

id  = feature('getpid');
if ispc
  cmd = sprintf('Taskkill /PID %d /F',id);
elseif (ismac || isunix)
  cmd = sprintf('kill -9 %d',id);
else
  disp('unknown operating system');
end
system(cmd);

[Al in St. Louis]

This is still needed with R2018b.