Develop Reference

Run "Find" (ctrl + F) in Google Chrome using C#

I'm trying to make an app, which could open a pdf file in a browser (Chrome) and search for a certain word automatically. However, I can't find anything about passing commands to Google from C# whatsoever.
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
process.StartInfo.FileName = "chrome";
process.StartInfo.Arguments = "console.log(\"TEST1\")";
process.Start();
I've tried running Chrome with StartInfo.FileName = "chrome", which went well. After that I thought I could add some Arguments: StartInfo.Arguments = "something" and that's where I ran into two problems:
The browser takes the Arguments as a URL and tries to open it as a web page (which of course fails)
I couldn't find the console command to run the search function in Chrome
Is there maybe some google API capable of this thing? Also please note that I'm not trying to use "search". I need the browser to literally focus on the word it found
If anyone here knows how to solve even one of these problems, I would be really grateful. Also this is my first question on StackOverflow (and I might have forgotten something) - I can give some additional info, if you ask

start and close instance of explorer.exe

I have a strange behaviour when I try to start explorer.exe from c# like this:
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo("explorer.exe", "E:");
info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = info;
process.Start();
Thread.Sleep(2000);
bool res = process.CloseMainWindow(); // InvalidOperationException -> already exited
process.Close();
process.WaitForExit(5000);
The problem is:
the exception seems correct, because at this point HasExited returns already true. Nevertheless in the taskmanager the created instance of explorer is still present.
So I dont understand what my call does. I had thought it would directly start an instance of explorer, but it seems not or the explorer works in some different way.
And my second question: how can I start and shortly after that stop a new specific instance of explorer programmatically?
Edit
to answer some questions:
explorer option Launch Folder Windows in a separate process is set to true
the created process.Id is not present in taskmanager. For example: the new explorer instance shown in taskmanager has PID 4968 while the debugger shows 10752 as ID of the created (and exited) process.
Edit: here a screenshot from taskmanager after ~12 debug runs

This may be down to the fact that the explorer.exe process in question HAS exited. Windows does some strange things with multiple explorer windows and it depends on the options you have set. By default, all windows end up running in a single process if I remember correctly.
What I would do is output the processid for the process you just generated:
Console.WriteLine($"{process.Id} has exited {process.HasExited}");
Then look at task manager to see if you can find the corresponding process. I would imagine that the HasExited is true so you won't find the process, but the window will have opened.
You may have to set process.EnableRaisingEvents to true to get a valid answer from process.HasExited, I can't recall of the top of my head.
Also check the setting in Explorer via Folder Options to see if you have Launch Folder Windows in a separate process enabled or not on the view tab.
IF you do find your process, you can always kill off that process and see if your windows closes. If it does, then it may be that the explorer.exe is not creating a main window handle which you can check using Spy++
Edited with more info
Further more, #Hans Passant mentioned above that shell windows work different. So what actually happens is this, explorer.exe (1234) contacts the root explorer.exe (321), which in turn then creates a new window (if Launch separate is false) or spawns a subprocess explorer.exe (3445). Your process explorer.exe (1234) having done its job, then exits. No window is ever created by your process so CloseMainWindow() will not find a window to close and errors.
How to close a specific explorer window
To do so you need to utilise ShellWindows, see Is there a way to close a particular instance of explorer with C#?
For reference the code used there was:
ShellWindows _shellWindows = new SHDocVw.ShellWindows();
string processType;
foreach (InternetExplorer ie in _shellWindows)
{
//this parses the name of the process
processType = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(ie.FullName).ToLower();
//this could also be used for IE windows with processType of "iexplore"
if (processType.Equals("explorer") && ie.LocationURL.Contains(#"C:/Users/Bob"))
{
ie.Quit();
}
}
Note, you need to be careful that you aren't closing a window the user wanted open in the first place. Is there a reason to close the window?

The problem is in the notion of has UI Interface, As per definition:
Closes a process that has a user interface by sending a close message
to its main window.
However explorer.exe is far more complicated than a simple process with UI.
If for example you use another, application, more simple (e.g Notepad), no exception will be raised:
ProcessStartInfo info = new ProcessStartInfo("notepad.exe");
info.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Maximized;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = info;
process.Start();
Thread.Sleep(2000);
bool res = process.CloseMainWindow(); // InvalidOperationException -> already exited
process.Close();

C#0 net use connection

So I am having issues with the "net use" command in C#. Basically, I am using the code written here. The code works great, however I have multiple ids that need to be used sequentially. Unfortunately, when trying to connect to another ID, the connection remains in "net use " in Windows, so this exception is thrown:
Win32Exception: Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed.
Now to me, the obvious thing would be to execute the command prompt programmatically to delete the connection when I am done using it. Here is the code that I am running to delete the connection:
System.Diagnostics.Process process = new System.Diagnostics.Process();
System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
startInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "/K net use delete \\IPAddrofserver";
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();
I only use /k so I can see if the command works. After this code executes, it says "The network connection cannot be found." However, if I manually open the start menu, and type net use, I can see and delete the connection. I think this may be related to the fact that when running the command prompt programmatically, I notice its being given administrative privilege as opposed to running it under my user token, but I cannot be sure. Any help regarding this would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT: Adding in the command prompt deletion code during the WnetCancelConnection2 actually operates correctly, and deletes the connection from net use. However, checking net use manually outside of the program reveals that the history of the connection still exists and is open. Whoami command reveals the same user. Any reason why there is a discrepancy between what happens programmatically and what happens when I check manually?

You probably need to start your process with elevated privileges. See the accepted answer here for how to do this. You could also choose to call the relevant Windows API directly, to avoid spawning other processes and dealing with those complications.

Open windows explorer with WPF application directory

I want to open application directory with button click. i get such error
Does anyone have an idea?

If you set UseShellExecute to true, then you can use Process to open a directory. For example, this will open the C:\ drive. You can specify any path you want.
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
process.StartInfo.FileName = #"C:\";
process.Start();
This is similar to using the Run dialog from the start menu. For instance, even though a Word document is not a program, using Shell Execute will allow you to "Start" a word document by using whatever program is associated with it. Likewise the same with a directory.

Have you tried "explorer.exe {0}" ? Explorer is the process you want, and the argument your intended path.

Try setting the ProcessStartInfo.Verb to "Open".

Can I stop an IIS?

In a .NET windows application to to modify a remote machine config file that is used by an ASP.NET application. However, I keep getting the error:
System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file '[file name]' because it is being used by another process.
Now, this may not be the problem, but I'm figuring that if I can stop the IIS, then I can modify the machine config file (without getting the exception), and then I can restart the IIS using this code:
Process proc = new Process();
proc.EnableRaisingEvents = false;
proc.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
proc.StartInfo.FileName = "iisreset";
proc.StartInfo.Arguments = serverName;
try
{
proc.Start();
proc.WaitForExit();
...
1) Is there a way to stop the IIS without restarting it, and 2) Doe this approach to changing the server.config file even make sense?
(note, I am modifying the file with regular expressions search and replace; is this a problem?)

You should be able to do something like this. I don't have windows, so I can't check the exact name of the service, but I think it is "IISADMIN" or "w3svc". Remember this should be the service name and not the display name you see in the service control panel.
ServiceController controller = new ServiceController();
controller.MachineName = "."; // or the remote machine name
controller.ServiceName = "IISADMIN"; // or "w3svc"
string status = controller.Status.ToString();
// Stop the service
controller.Stop();
// Start the service
controller.Start();
You can also use
net stop w3svc
or
net stop IISADMIN
from the commandline or in your process in your code

Strange. A .config file should not be locked exclusively.
But to answer your question, you can also use the net command for this:
net stop w3svc
to stop the www service, and
net start w3svc
to start it again.
You can also do this programmatically as described by #monkeyp
Note that I would advice against this and first try to determine (and resolve) the cause of the lock as described by #RichardOD.

Using System.Diagnostics;
//to stop ISS
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("iisreset.exe", " /stop");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(startInfo);
//to start ISS
ProcessStartInfo stopInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("iisreset.exe", " /start");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(stopInfo);

You can use the IISRESET /STOP command.
If you type IISRESET /? you will get a list of other available options.
[Edit: Pass the "/STOP" switch as the arguments property on the process' startinfo object.]

Should be "iisreset /STOP" to stop the services, then "iisreset /START" to restart them.

Use a tool like wholockme or unlocker to find the root cause of the locking.
Update- another option is to use Process Explorer (thanks fretje)- this is a good option as lots of developers have this utility on their PC.

You can often just recycle or stop/start the Application Pool IIS is running, rather than restarting IIS altogether.