if wpf app is not responding, then auto restart

Question

I have a WPF application that occasionally crashes, and say "not responding". Is there a way to detect if the program is not responding? And if so, restart the WPF application?

This will be a temporary fix until the bugs are fixed.

Answer 1

Because this is a temporary fix while you debug the app, one possibility is to cheat and use a bootstrapper/startup app whose sole job is to monitor the problematic app. Start the problematic application via the System.Diagnostics.Process class's Start method, then occasionally monitor the returned Process' Responding property. If not responding, do what you need to do.

It's important that this only be done as a stopgap while you fix the real problem, of course. There are lots of little issues with doing something like this long-term.

Answer 2

You could use the Application Recovery & Restart Manager API, which was introduced in Windows Vista. This is an unmanaged (C) API, however there are managed wrappers available in the Windows API Code Pack.

This is a good feature to add to your application anyway, as it provides the user with a nicer experience if (when!) you application crashes. You can even write a callback that persists information about what the user was doing, and then restore that state when the application restarts.

The most basic use of the API would be to just add the following line somewhere in application startup:

ApplicationRestartRecoveryManager.RegisterForApplicationRestart( new RestartSettings( "restart", RestartRestrictions.None ) );