Registry shell open, unless already running - in which case...

[DavidNels]

Hi guys,

I'm writing to the registry to create a custom web protocol that passes variables to my program, so that on the web, my application would handle URLs like: appname:var1/var2 -- This has worked out great thus far, however, I have it setup in the registry somewhat like this:

SetStringValue "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\app", "", "URL: appProtocol"
SetStringValue "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\app", "URL Protocol", ""
SetBinaryValue "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\app", "EditFlags", Chr$(&H2) + Chr$(&H0) + Chr$(&H0) + Chr$(&H0)
SetStringValue "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\app\shell\open\command", "", "" & EXEpath

Which is OK if the program has not already been executed, but if the program is already a running process, it will not communicate with the running .exe, but instead open a new (duplicate) one.

Now, I didn't really expect it to 'communicate' with the existing one automatically or anything, as I know from messing with VB6 for a few months now, that nothing really 'communicates' on its own.

So, my question is; How can I say, if xxxxxxx.exe is running, do not open a new instance and instead open communication with the current process, otherwise [else] open a new xxxxxxx.exe

In case you were wondering, the remainder of the function resembles this:

'command is the command that open the program, if you double clicked the icon, the path would be "" nothing.
'if a file called the opening of this program, the Command would be the path of that file

Path = Command
If Path = "" Then  ' if no file requested it to open, aka you click the icon to execute the program
       
        Else       ' if it was requested by a webpage, then do the following
        ExtractData1
        ExtractData2
        ExtractData3
        End If

Thanks a lot!

David