How to measure the time an application takes to start up in C#?

Question

I have an GUI application that takes a while to load all its plugins, before it is ready to be used by the user.

I want to write a C# program that would measure the time taken for this application to start up. I thought the Process.WaitForInputIdle() method would do the trick, but it doesn't. It exits as soon as the process is started.

What I have now is this:

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;

Process myAppUnderTest = Process.Start("C:\\Program Files\\My App\app_under_test.ext");

myAppUnderTest.WaitForInputIdle();   //Wait until the application is idle.

DateTime endTime = DateTime.Now;

int elapsedTimeInSecs = endTime.Subtract(startTime).Seconds;

Console.WriteLine("Start up time (sec): {0}", elapsedTimeInSecs);

How can I get the start up time that I intend?

Answer 1

I say it's very difficult.

How do you classify an application loaded and ready? If there is a way (which I don't think so) then it would be easy.

But if the app you are loading signals you in certain way (IPC/files/network), then you can capture that signal and say the app is loaded. In that case, you can use a timer/stopwatch/performance counter.

If you can modify the to be timed app, then you can achieve in various ways. If its external to you, I doubt there is any easy way.