Use PHP to manage scripts (start/stop)

Hey guys, long time no see!

I need some help with a couple of things in PHP for a project I am working on. I need to use PHP to start a script (perl script), check if the script is still running, and kill the script on a windows box.

Can anybody help me?

EDIT Just to clarify here is what I am doing with the script. I will have a list on the side of the browser of 6 to 15 items, each with a start button. Click on the start button and it starts the associated perl script, click the stop button and it closes that script. There needs to be the capability to leave all scripts running in the background.