[2005] Checking if an external program is running?

[loosus]

Okay, I have a piece of code that starts an external installation program:

Process.Start(programLocation)

The variable programLocation may be any number of locations on the hard drive or a network resource.

The program, ideally, should do its thing, and the process should then be ended.

At that point, I'd like to start another installation. But I should only perform one installation at a time. Is there any way I can check to see if the previous installation has ended?

Thanks!

Jason

[Paul M]

Have a look at the System.Diagnostics.Process class and its 'GetProcesses', 'GetProcessesByName' methods.

[loosus]

Thanks for the reply.

I looked at those two methods, and it appears that it requires a name. First, where do I find that name? And two, is it possible for there to be two processes on the same machine with the same name, possibly providing incorrect results?

I also saw GetProcessById(), which sounds like it'd be more consistent (I guess?). But how do you know what the ID is to begin with? Can you assign IDs?

[nmadd]

Yes, you can have more than process with the same name running at the same time. Open up two Internet Explorers and hit Ctl-Alt-Delete, then go to the Processes tab. You'll see two name iexplore.exe. You can see your process names here.

However, if you are starting this process yourself, then you already have your reference to it and can use that.

    Private _proc As Process

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        ' Start my process.
        _proc = New Process()
        _proc.StartInfo.FileName = "IExplore.exe"
        _proc.Start()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
        ' Check if I started my process.
        If _proc IsNot Nothing Then
            ' Try to close my process.
            _proc.CloseMainWindow()
            ' Wait for it to exit.
            _proc.WaitForExit(5000)
            If Not _proc.HasExited Then
                ' Just kill it if it won't close.
                _proc.Kill()
            End If
        End If
    End Sub

[loosus]

Very helpful. Thanks.

My only problem now is that when I went through a series of programs using _proc.WaitForExit(), it didn't wait on some of the programs. :\ Specifically, it didn't wait for a setup program created in Visual Basic 2005 Express.

[nmadd]

Very helpful. Thanks.

My only problem now is that when I went through a series of programs using _proc.WaitForExit(), it didn't wait on some of the programs. :\ Specifically, it didn't wait for a setup program created in Visual Basic 2005 Express.

Hmmm. It didn't wait 5 seconds for the process to close? I don't know.

[loosus]

It didn't.

Does the VB Express setup program do anything weird? It seems like when I run it, it sorta goes away for a second and then comes back. Is it possible that it's somehow "killing itself" and then bringing itself back, thereby reporting to my own program that it's been killed?