Hide a C# program from the task manager?

Question

Is there any way to hide a C# program from the Windows Task Manager?

EDIT: Thanks for the overwhelming response! Well I didn't intend to do something spooky. Just wanted to win a bet with my friend that I can do it without him noticing. And I'm not a geek myself to be able to write a rootkit, as someone suggested though I'd love to know how to do it.

Answer 1

Not that I'm aware of - and there shouldn't be. The point of the task manager is to allow users to examine processes etc.

If the user should be able to do that, they should be able to find your program. If they shouldn't be poking around in Task Manager, group policy should prevent that - not your program.

Answer 2

I don't know if there are solutions specific to C#. Anyway, look at this "hack": http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/Hack_Windows_Task_Manager.aspx

Answer 3

You shouldn't hide it, but you could prevent the user from killing the process.

See Chris Smith's answer to this question.

Answer 4

You could make your program a service and then it would appear as "svchost". There's a little more to it than that, but that should give you a hint to go in the right direction.

Answer 5

So you wanna write a rootkit? C# is not a way to go. Let's try ASM :D

Answer 6

I'm not aware of any way to hide it from the task manager, but you could just disguise it by making it show up as "svchost.exe". It'll get lumped in with all the others (there's usually several), and will become indistinguishable.

Answer 7

the only way its to hide your application