How to check if a process is running via a batch script

Question

How can I check if an application is running from a batch (well cmd) file?

I need to not launch another instance if a program is already running. (I can't change the app to make it single instance only.)

Also the application could be running as any user.

Answer 1

You should check the parent process name

CodeProject Article - .NET based solution

Non-Programmatic way to check:

1. Launch Cmd.exe
2. Launch an app [for instance, c:\windows\notepad.exe]
3. Check Properties of Notepad.exe process in Process Explorer
4. Check for parent process.[This shows cmd.exe]

The same can be checked by getting ParentProcess Name.

Answer 2

I'm assuming windows here. So, you'll need to use WMI to get that information. Check out The Scripting Guy's archives for a lot of examples on how to use WMI from a script.

Answer 3

Or, you could play with the various switches 'tasklist' (on the windows command shell) supports.

Answer 4

Here's how I've worked it out:

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log

FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end

start notepad.exe

:end

del search.log

The above will open notepad if it is not already running

Edit: Note that this won't find apps hidden from the tasklist. This will include any scheduled tasks running as a different user, as these are automatically hidden.

Answer 5

I don't know how to do so with built in CMD but if you have grep you can try the following:

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myApp.exe" | grep myApp.exe
if ERRORLEVEL 1 echo "myApp is not running"

Answer 6

I use PV.exe from http://www.teamcti.com/pview/prcview.htm installed in Program Files\PV with a batch file like this:

@echo off
PATH=%PATH%;%PROGRAMFILES%\PV;%PROGRAMFILES%\YourProgram
PV.EXE YourProgram.exe >nul
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto Process_NotFound
:Process_Found
echo YourProgram is running
goto END
:Process_NotFound
echo YourProgram is not running
YourProgram.exe
goto END
:END

Answer 7

Another possibility i came up with inspired by using grep is this

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myapp.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "myapp.exe">NUL
if "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" echo Programm is running

It doesn't need to save an extra file, so i prefer this method

Answer 8

Thank you! I know these notes are a couple of years old, but GOLD to me. I used the script provided by Matt (10/2/08). The only thing I had trouble with was that it wouldn't delete the search.log. I expect because I had to cd to another location to start my program. I cd'd back to where the bat file and search.log are, but still wouldn't delete. So I resolved that by deleting the search.log first instead of last.

del search.log 

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myprog.exe" /FO CSV > search.log

FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%-zA EQU 0 GOTO end

cd "C:\Program Files\MyLoc\bin"

myprog.exe myuser mypwd

:end

Answer 9

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq notepad.exe" /FO CSV > search.log FOR /F %%A IN (search.log) DO IF %%~zA EQU 0 GOTO end start notepad.exe :end del search.log

Can you do the same thing but in vbscript? thank you

Answer 10

@motti

This works admirably, except use qgrep in windows (resource kit):

tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq myApp.exe" | qgrep myApp.exe
if ERRORLEVEL 1 (start myapp.exe) ELSE (goto:EOF)