hiding programs

In the school library you have to run different programs to do different operations. For example you need a different program to do patron maintainence than to check out books. This wouldn't be a problem but the software won't let you run more than one program at a time without purchasing a more expensive license, and the library can't afford that. This is really annoying when you are adding books to the database and a kid comes along and wants to check something out.

Is there a way I could write a program to hid the fact that one of the programs is running? I think it just checks the task manager to see if it's running or something, I can't find a PID file or anything.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Kevin

Probably with difficulty.

What the programs do, I expect, is to create a Mutex (mutually exclusive handle). Only one of these can be created, and if you try and recreate one (by providing the same name) it will return an error, and the first mutex.

I think you can browse them for the names if you're on NT.