c# - How to determine if a previous instance of my application is running?

Question

I have a console application in C# in which I run various arcane automation tasks. I am well aware that this should really be a Windows Service since it needs to run continuously, but I don't want to do that at this time. (So, don't suggest that as an answer).

In the meantime, I need some sample C# code that will allow me to determine if there's already an instance of the Application running.

In the old VB6.0 days, I would have used App.PrevInstance()

I want to be able to do this in my Main method:

static void Main()
{
  if(!MyApp.IsAlreadyRunning())
  {
    while(true)
    {
      RockAndRollAllNightAndPartyEveryDay();
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

The proper way to use a mutex for this purpose:

private static Mutex mutex;

static void Main()
{
    // STEP 1: Create and/or check mutex existence in a race-free way
    bool created;
    mutex = new Mutex(false, "YourAppName-{add-your-random-chars}", out created);
    if (!created)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Another instance of this application is already running");
        return;
    }

    // STEP 2: Run whatever the app needs to do
    Application.Run(new Form1());

    // No need to release the mutex because it was never acquired
}

The above won't work for detecting if several users on the same machine are running the app under different user accounts. A similar case is where a process can run both under the service host and standalone. To make these work, create the mutex as follows:

        var sid = new SecurityIdentifier(WellKnownSidType.WorldSid, null);
        var mutexsecurity = new MutexSecurity();
        mutexsecurity.AddAccessRule(new MutexAccessRule(sid, MutexRights.FullControl, AccessControlType.Allow));
        mutexsecurity.AddAccessRule(new MutexAccessRule(sid, MutexRights.ChangePermissions, AccessControlType.Deny));
        mutexsecurity.AddAccessRule(new MutexAccessRule(sid, MutexRights.Delete, AccessControlType.Deny));
        _mutex = new Mutex(false, "Global\YourAppName-{add-your-random-chars}", out created, mutexsecurity);

Two differences here - firstly, the mutex needs to be created with security rights that allow other user accounts to open/acquire it. Second, the name must be prefixed with "Global" in the case of services running under the service host (not sure about other users running locally on the same machine).