How do I know if another process is running on windows?

Question

I have a VC ++ console application and I need to check if another process is working. I do not have a window name, I have the name of an executable file. How do I get the process descriptor / PID? Can I list the processes started with this .exe?

Answer 1

You can use EnumProcesses to list processes in the system.

You will need to use OpenProcess to get the handle of the process, then QueryFullProcessImageName to get the executable processes.

Answer 2

Use the CreateToolhelp32Snapshot Function

hSnapShot = FCreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0); 

Next is Process32First and Process32Next .

You will get PROCESSENTRY32 as follows with a szExeFile member.

 PROCESSENTRY32W processInfo; processInfo.szExeFile 

Before listing, first get the SeDebugPrivilege privilege, so you get all the processes in all sessions and users.

To get privilege to get all sessions:

 acquirePrivilegeByName(SE_DEBUG_NAME);// SeDebugPrivilege 

Where is purchasedPrivilegeByName is defined as:

 BOOL acquirePrivilegeByName( const TCHAR *szPrivilegeName) { HANDLE htoken; TOKEN_PRIVILEGES tkp; DWORD dwerr; //---------------- adjust process token privileges to grant privilege if (szPrivilegeName == NULL) { SetLastError(ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER); return FALSE; } if (!LookupPrivilegeValue(NULL, szPrivilegeName, &(tkp.Privileges[0].Luid))) return FALSE; tkp.PrivilegeCount = 1; tkp.Privileges[0].Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED; if (!OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess(), TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES, &htoken)) return FALSE; if (!AdjustTokenPrivileges(htoken, FALSE, &tkp, 0, NULL, NULL) || GetLastError() != ERROR_SUCCESS) // may equal ERROR_NOT_ALL_ASSIGNED { dwerr = GetLastError(); CloseHandle(htoken); SetLastError(dwerr); return FALSE; } CloseHandle(htoken); SetLastError(ERROR_SUCCESS); return TRUE; } //acquirePrivilegeByName() 

If you need the full name of the process image, you can use QueryFullProcessImageName , but the szExeFile member may be enough for your needs.