Microsoft KB Archive/72918

= HOWTO: VB Can Determine if Specific Windows Program Is Running =

Article ID: 72918

Article Last Modified on 12/12/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 2.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q72918



SUMMARY
To determine if a specific program is running, call the Windows API function FindWindow.

FindWindow returns the handle of the window whose class is given by the lpClassname parameter and whose window name (caption), is given by the lpCaption parameter. If the returned value is zero, the application is not running.

NOTE: Only 16-bit implementations of VBA support the sample code in this article.



MORE INFORMATION
This information is included with the Help file provided with Microsoft Professional Toolkit for Visual Basic version 1.0, Microsoft Visual Basic version 2.0, and Microsoft Visual Basic version 3.0.

By calling FindWindow with a combination of a specific program's class name and/or the title bar caption, your program can determine whether that specific program is running. When an application is started from the Program Manager, it registers the class name of the form. The window class provides information about the name, attributes, and resources required by your form. MDI forms in Visual Basic have ThunderMDIForm as their class name, and all other Visual Basic forms have ThunderForm as their class name.

You can determine the class name of an application by using SPY.EXE that comes with the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) version 3.0 or 3.1.

If the window has a caption bar title, you can also use the title to locate the instance of the running application. This caption text is valid even when the application is minimized to an icon.

Because another instance of your Visual Basic program will have the same class name and may have the same title bar caption, you must use dynamic data exchange (DDE) to determine if another instance of your Visual Basic program is running. (This DDE technique is not shown in this article).

Step-by-Step Example
The following example shows three ways to determine if the Windows Calculator is running. To create the program, do the following:

 Start Visual Basic or from the File menu, choose New Project (ALT, F, N) if Visual Basic is already running. Form1 is created by default.  Declare the Windows API function FindWindow in the Global declarations section of Form1. The variables are declared as &quot;Any&quot; because you can pass either a pointer to a string, or a NULL (or 0&) value. You are responsible for passing the correct variable type. ' Enter the following Declare statement on one, single line:

Declare Function FindWindow% Lib &quot;user&quot; (ByVal lpClassName As Any,        ByVal lpCaption As Any)   Add the following code to the form's Click event. This example demonstrates how you can find the instance of the application with a combination of the class name and/or the window's caption. In this example, the application will find an instance of the Windows calculator (CALC.EXE). Sub Form_Click lpClassName$ = &quot;SciCalc&quot; lpCaption$ = &quot;Calculator&quot;

Print &quot;Handle = &quot;;FindWindow(lpClassName$, 0&) Print &quot;Handle = &quot;;FindWindow(0&, lpCaption$) Print &quot;Handle = &quot;;FindWindow(lpClassName$,lpCaption$) End Sub  Run this program with CALC.EXE running and without CALC.EXE running. If CALC.EXE is running, your application will print an arbitrary handle. If CALC.EXE is not running, your application will print zero as the handle.

Below are some class names of applications that are shipped with Windows: Class Name        Application SciCalc           CALC.EXE CalWndMain        CALENDAR.EXE Cardfile          CARDFILE.EXE Clipboard         CLIPBOARD.EXE Clock             CLOCK.EXE CtlPanelClass     CONTROL.EXE XLMain            EXCEL.EXE Session           MS-DOS.EXE Notepad           NOTEPAD.EXE pbParent          PBRUSH.EXE Pif               PIFEDIT.EXE PrintManager      PRINTMAN.EXE Progman           PROGMAN.EXE   (Windows Program manager) Recorder          RECORDER.EXE Reversi           REVERSI.EXE Solitaire         SOL.EXE Terminal          TERMINAL.EXE WFS_Frame         WINFILE.EXE MW_WINHELP        WINHELP.EXE OpusApp           WINWORD.EXE MSWRITE_MENU      WRITE.EXE
 * 1) 32770            SETUP.EXE
 * 1) 32770            WINVER.EXE

Keywords: kbhowto kbprogramming KB72918

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