I want to programmatically obtain a list of running (desktop) applications, and then I want to display this list to the user. It should be something similar to the application list displayed in the Windows Task Manager.
How can I create this in C#? Specifically, I need a way to obtain that list of currently running applications.
You can use the Process.GetProcesses method to provide information about all of the processes that are currently running on your computer.
However, this shows all running processes, including ones that are not necessarily shown on the taskbar. So what you'll need to do is filter out those processes that have an empty MainWindowTitle.The above-linked documentation explains why this works:
A process has a main window associated
with it only if the process has a
graphical interface. If the associated
process does not have a main window
(so that MainWindowHandle is zero),
MainWindowTitle is an empty string
("").
So, you could use something like the following code, which will print out (to a console window) a list of all currently running applications that are visible on your taskbar:
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (var proc in processes)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(proc.MainWindowTitle))
Console.WriteLine(proc.MainWindowTitle);
}
Related
I've an application which does
Process.Start()
to start another application 'firefox.exe'. I want to wait till that application ends (process dies) and continue my execution (example: Show a messagebox). There may be multiple instances of the application 'firefox.exe' running at the same time.
I have try WaitForExit and HasExited, but it return true right after firefox process start, so that the Messagebox show immediately.
How can i Show the messagebox in this situtation.
Update 1:
I tried this:
Process browser = new Process();
browser= Process.Start(#"dist\bin\firefox.exe");
browser.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
browser.WaitForExit();
MessageBox.Show("AAAA!!!");
and HasExited similarly with EventRaising.
Update 2:
I have tried with many Simple Program like Notepad.exe, cmd.exe... All of them worked well. I think that Firefox call another process before running the main process and closing the original process. How can i bypass this problem.
If you can be certain that no firefox instance is already running you can simply use Process.GetProcessesByName("firefox"); and use WaitForExit on these processes.
If you want to handle multiple concurrent firefox instances you have a bit of a problem since firefox manages multiple processes in its own special ways. When you start firefox it might just ask the existing firefox process to create a new window and then quit. So you would need to detect new windows and monitor when this window is closed. I do not think there is any way to accomplish what you want simply by waiting on processes, at least not without cooperation by the program.
In the end I would try to do whatever you are trying to accomplish some other way. Perhaps you can host a webcontrol inside the application? Or perhaps embed a copy of Firefox Portable or some other stand alone browser in your application and start that instead?
I am using the method GetForegroundWindow() to get the window a user is using. But if the window is Windows Store App/UWP app (example the calculator) I get the window with a title (Reiknivél in Icelandic), but the process is ApplicationFrameHost. The problem is that I need the underlying process. I am now working on a method that takes that title and returns the process, but I have no idea how to connect the ApplicationFrameHost process to the real process.
I have been trying to get the hwnd for the window shown in the screenshot (link below). I am trying to get at it from one of the threads I can get from the calculator process. When I iterate all the windows from that thread using GetWindowHandlesForThread() I can get the other two and their titles, but the hwnd for the Windows.UI.Core window does not show up. And I know it's there because if I use Spy++ I can see it.
Any Ideas on how to get at it using C#? I have tried EnumWindows, EnumChildWindows, EnumThreadWindows and even GetGUIThreadInfoand all I have gotten from the ones that worked were the other two windows, never the CoreWindow that I need. Any ideas of how I could achieve this?
On Windows 8.1 you go into the task manager and check the list of processes, there are two lists:
- One for "Apps", which are visible foreground apps
- One for "Background processes", which are processes running in the background
My end goal is to time how long it takes an application to load. When the application is still loading, it appears in "Background processes". However, once loaded, it appears in "Apps". This is going to be my criteria on what constitutes an app finishing loading.
I am using a System.Diagnostics.Process object to try to accomplish this. However, I am struggling to come up with a way to distinguish between a Process under "Background processes" and a Process under "Apps".
Does anyone have an idea on how to make this distinction? I looked through MSDN and tried different methods, none of which have been successful.
The property System.Diagnostics.Process.MainWindowHandle is zero when process has not UI (i.e. is background process).
Normally, if a process is an "App", it should have its own window's name, otherwise, it is a "Background application". Thus the code should be as follow:
Process[] arrProcess = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process process in arrProcess)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(process.MainWindowTitle))
{
//Do something with your App
}
else
{
//Do something with your Background process
}
}
Services are also usually created by SYSTEM user - the column "User Name" in task manager.
I am trying to write a C# program to retrieve a complete process list. However I find that an application open a window but I don't see it in the process tab of Windows task manager, I see it in task tab. In addition, I also cannot get its information using my C# code.
static void showProcesses()
{
Process[] procs = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process proc in procs)
{
Console.WriteLine(proc.ProcessName);
}
}
I browsed many forums but I can only find the methods to hide a process, and I don't find any method for showing hidden processes. Do anyone have idea how to retrieve hidden process information?
There are no hidden processes on Windows. Only processes you do not have (security) rights to see.
A process running as an administrator (in Vista/Win7/Win2k8 would need to be elevated) will always be able to see all processes.
However, a console application that lists the processes may well exit before Task Manager's display refreshes, and thus won't be seen. This is likely with a simple program even with update speed set to "high".
You need to keep your process around until Task manager has updated its display. The simplest way would be do add the following statements to the end of your Main method:
Console.Write("Press ENTER to exit");
Console.ReadLine();
I'm not sure what you mean. The code above lists the same number of processes as pslist. When you talk about methods to hide a process are you talking about root kits? If so they usually work by changing how the list commands work. I.e. the processes are in fact being enumerated, but the info is not displayed to the user.
it works just fine all you need is add :
Console.Write("Press ENTER to exit");
Console.ReadLine();
at the end or start project with ctrl + F5
I'm trying to find a way to get the open tasks in C#. I've been searching on google and can only find how to get a list of the processes. I want the only the tasks that would show up on the taskbar.
Also, along with that, it would be cool if I could get the process the task is associated with. And if possible get the thumbnail images that Vista uses for the ALT-TAB menu, like in this image:
I assume that I will have to use pinvokes because it really doesn't look like there are any libraries to do this already. Any ideas?
This article should pretty much tell you exactly what to do, it shows how to build your own task switch and includes the code needed to enumerate all windows and determine if they are "tasks" and it shows you how to use PrintWindow api to get the previews on XP.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997649.aspx
Also, here is a blog post that talks about the algorithm used to determine what shows up in the Alt+Tab view. Basically you need to check the WS_EX_APPWINDOW and WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW along with if the window has an owner.
From an API (Win32) perspective there is no such thing as Tasks (at least not the one that Windows Task Manager/Alt-Tab shows).
Those "Tasks" are actually top level windows.
So in order to get a list of those, you need to enumerate the windows (here is the PInvoke for it).
Then look at the style of the windows to determine if they are actually top level windows.
I haven't tried it, but I suspect something like this:
using System.Diagnostics;
static void MyFunc()
{
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach(Process p in processes)
{
if (p.MainWindowHandle != 0)
{ // This is a GUI process
}
else
{ // this is a non-GUI / invisible process
}
}
}
The point is to check each process for a WindowHandle.
#abelenky17
I suspect that this will not cover all cases, for example there are processes who have several top level windows (that all appear in the task manager).
Consider for example: FireFox, Windows Explorer, IE, etc... those applications can have multiple windows on the desktop.
Also, it will not handle Terminal Sessions scenario's properly (because you enumerate all the processes running in the system).
#Dan C.
Doing something like this:
p.ProcessName != "explorer"
seems ok to you? It smells, bad.