[RESOLVED] making a vb.net app start 2 times

[2pac]

so Basically, i want my vb.net application to start 2 times, by itself, how to do that, should i use a timer ?

i have an other silly question, i want to remove the blue default icon of VB.net, to a default windows exe icon, how to do dat?

PLease help

[AnthonyGrimes]

Changing the default icon was answered here: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...(default-icon)

A timer would work to start your application multiple times.

[dday9]

The issue you have when running any sort of code to open your app multiple times is that, it's going to run in the second application too. What I would do is in you form_load event, check if there is an instance of your application, if not then create a new instance, if so then do nothing:

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        'Get all instances of WindowsApplication1
        'If your application name is something else, then change the "WindowsApplication1" to it's name
        Dim my_application() As Process = Process.GetProcessesByName("WindowsApplication1")

        'Check if there is only 1 instance of my application
        If my_application.Count <= 0 Then
            'Create new instance
            Dim new_form As New Form1
            new_form.Show()
            new_form.Focus()
        End If

    End Sub

But even in this example, it will open multiple instances of Form1 because it keeps running until the my_application.Count is greater than 0. So perhaps someone else could shed some light.

[techgnome]

I'd create a bootstrap program... when it starts up, it launches the "real" app twice then shuts down... A console app with two calls to process.Start should be sufficient.

-tg

[Joacim Andersson]

dday9 has the correct idea, however since you're using VS2008 there is no Count method on the array returned by GetProcessByName since that is an extension method introduced in VS2010. Hard coding in the process name is also not really recommended, you can use a function such as this:

  Public Function PreviousInstanceCount() As Integer
    Return Process.GetProcessesByName(Process.GetCurrentProcess.ProcessName).Length - 1
  End Function

You can call this from your Form_Load event and check if the return value is 0 then you need to launch your application a second time.

    If PreviousInstanceCount = 0 Then
      Process.Start(Process.GetCurrentProcess.MainModule.FileName)
    End If

Note that this will not work while you run the application in debug mode from Visual Studio but it will work when you launch the compiled application (or start it with full compile, Ctrl+F5)

[ident]

Could there not be any conflict if another application had the same name?

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object,
                           ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
 
        Dim instance As Boolean
        Dim mutex As New Threading.Mutex(False, "Local\ApplicationName", instance)
 
        If instance Then
            Process.Start(Process.GetCurrentProcess.MainModule.FileName)
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

[2pac]

Thanks guys that really helped !

[ident]

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