To find if a process is running.

Hi Techies,

Can anyone tell me an API or a logic to find if a process is running on a system (local and remote). The problem is detailed below:

1. I launch an application say "Notepad.exe" from another application say "MyApp".
2. Notepad.exe continues to run after I close "MyApp".
3. The second time I run "MyApp", it should check if there is already an instance of "Notepad.exe" running. If yes, it should not launch it.

From the code I will be passing only the application name "Notepad.exe". I am not creating a thread. Is there a single API call which takes the application name and tells if the application is already running in the system [OR] is there a simple method to find this out.

Regards,
KalpanaManuPrasad

Hi,

I think the api function "FindWindow" should help you.

Winni

Use API functions Process32First, Process32Next to iterate through all opened processes.

1. Process32First, Process32Next does not work on Win NT for ex.
It's special for Win 9x ( in ToolHelp lib ) and else Win 2000... supports it. So for Win NT there are functions from psapi.dll ( EnumProcesses,...), PDH-functions and hidden hive of registry (HKEY_PERFORMANCEDATA). There is no one way to enumerate processes for all Win-platforms.

2. If FindWindow,
There is one question: Are U simple need already running notepad.exe or it must be notepad.exe with some information from previsious process ( opened document in it for ex. ).
Because U can have situation when U have many notepad.exe running on machine, so if you want to find notepad.exe running by your process U must know for ex. a caption of this notepad window. And use it for finding current notepad instance.

OSVERSIONINFO os;
os.dwOSVersionInfoSize = sizeof(OSVERSIONINFO);
GetVersionEx(&os);
if (os.dwPlatformId == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_NT)
{

}
else if (os.dwPlatformId == VER_PLATFORM_WIN32_WINDOWS)
{
}
else
{
}