Prevent multiple instances of a given app in .NET?

Question

In .NET, what's the best way to prevent multiple instances of an app from running at the same time? And if there's no "best" technique, what are some of the caveats to consider with each solution?

Answer 1

Use Mutex. One of the examples above using GetProcessByName has many caveats. Here is a good article on the subject:

http://odetocode.com/Blogs/scott/archive/2004/08/20/401.aspx

[STAThread]
static void Main() 
{
   using(Mutex mutex = new Mutex(false, "Global\\" + appGuid))
   {
      if(!mutex.WaitOne(0, false))
      {
         MessageBox.Show("Instance already running");
         return;
      }

      Application.Run(new Form1());
   }
}

private static string appGuid = "c0a76b5a-12ab-45c5-b9d9-d693faa6e7b9";

Answer 2

Here is the code you need to ensure that only one instance is running. This is the method of using a named mutex.

public class Program
{
    static System.Threading.Mutex singleton = new Mutex(true, "My App Name");

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        if (!singleton.WaitOne(TimeSpan.Zero, true))
        {
            //there is already another instance running!
            Application.Exit();
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

if (Process.GetProcessesByName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName).Length > 1)
{
  AppLog.Write("Application XXXX already running. Only one instance of this application is allowed", AppLog.LogMessageType.Warn);
  return;
}

Answer 4

1 - Create a reference in program.cs ->

using System.Diagnostics;

2 - Put into void Main() as the first line of code ->

 if (Process.GetProcessesByName(Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName).Length >1)
                return;

That's it.

Answer 5

Hanselman has a post on using the WinFormsApplicationBase class from the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly to do this.

Answer 6

After trying multiple solutions i the question. I ended up using the example for WPF here: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/f9f215/how-to-restrict-the-application-to-just-one-instance/

public partial class App : Application  
{  
    private static Mutex _mutex = null;  

    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)  
    {  
        const string appName = "MyAppName";  
        bool createdNew;  

        _mutex = new Mutex(true, appName, out createdNew);  

        if (!createdNew)  
        {  
            //app is already running! Exiting the application  
            Application.Current.Shutdown();  
        }  

    }          
}  

In App.xaml:

x:Class="*YourNameSpace*.App"
StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml"
Startup="App_Startup"

Answer 7

i tried all the solutions here and nothing worked in my C# .net 4.0 project. Hoping to help someone here the solution that worked for me:

As main class variables:

private static string appGuid = "WRITE AN UNIQUE GUID HERE";
private static Mutex mutex;

When you need to check if app is already running:

bool mutexCreated;
mutex = new Mutex(true, "Global\\" + appGuid, out mutexCreated);
if (mutexCreated)
    mutex.ReleaseMutex();

if (!mutexCreated)
{
    //App is already running, close this!
    Environment.Exit(0); //i used this because its a console app
}

I needed to close other istances only with some conditions, this worked well for my purpose

Answer 8

It sounds like there are 3 fundamental techniques that have been suggested so far.

1. Derive from the Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase class and set the IsSingleInstance property to true. (I believe a caveat here is that this won't work with WPF applications, will it?)
2. Use a named mutex and check if it's already been created.
3. Get a list of running processes and compare the names of the processes. (This has the caveat of requiring your process name to be unique relative to any other processes running on a given user's machine.)

Any caveats I've missed?

Answer 9

Using Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 when you create a project for an executable, on the properties windows inside the "Application" panel there is a check box named “Make single instance application” that you can activate to convert the application on a single instance application.

Here is a capture of the window I'm talking of: This is a Visual Studio 2008 windows application project.

Answer 10

This is the code for VB.Net

Private Shared Sub Main()
    Using mutex As New Mutex(False, appGuid)
        If Not mutex.WaitOne(0, False) Then
              MessageBox.Show("Instance already running", "ERROR", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
            Return
        End If

        Application.Run(New Form1())
    End Using
End Sub

This is the code for C#

private static void Main()
{
    using (Mutex mutex = new Mutex(false, appGuid)) {
        if (!mutex.WaitOne(0, false)) {
            MessageBox.Show("Instance already running", "ERROR", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
            return;
        }

        Application.Run(new Form1());
    }
}

Answer 11

http://en.csharp-online.net/Application_Architecture_in_Windows_Forms_2.0—Single-Instance_Detection_and_Management

Answer 12

[STAThread]
static void Main()                  // args are OK here, of course
{
    bool ok;
    m = new System.Threading.Mutex(true, "YourNameHere", out ok);

    if (! ok)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Another instance is already running.");
        return;
    }

    Application.Run(new Form1());   // or whatever was there

    GC.KeepAlive(m);                // important!
}

From: Ensuring a single instance of .NET Application

and: Single Instance Application Mutex

Same answer as @Smink and @Imjustpondering with a twist:

Jon Skeet's FAQ on C# to find out why GC.KeepAlive matters

Answer 13

This article simply explains how you can create a windows application with control on the number of its instances or run only single instance. This is very typical need of a business application. There are already lots of other possible solutions to control this.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090205153420/http://www.openwinforms.com/single_instance_application.html

Answer 14

Use VB.NET! No: really ;)

using Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices;

The WindowsFormsApplicationBase from VB.Net provides you with a "SingleInstace" Property, which determines other Instances and let only one Instance run.

Answer 15

(Note: this is a fun-solution! It works but uses bad GDI+ design to achieve this.)

Put an image in with your app and load it on startup. Hold it until the app exits. The user wont be able to start a 2nd instance. (Of course the mutex solution is much cleaner)

private static Bitmap randomName = new Bitmap("my_image.jpg");

Answer 16

Simply using a StreamWriter, how about this?

System.IO.File.StreamWriter OpenFlag = null;   //globally

and

try
{
    OpenFlag = new StreamWriter(Path.GetTempPath() + "OpenedIfRunning");
}
catch (System.IO.IOException) //file in use
{
    Environment.Exit(0);
}

Answer 17

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/SingleInstancingWithIpc.aspx

Answer 18

You have to use System.Diagnostics.Process.

Check out: http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/20044

Answer 19

This worked for me in pure C#. the try/catch is when possibly a process in the list exits during your loop.

using System.Diagnostics;
....
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
...
        int procCount = 0;
        foreach (Process pp in Process.GetProcesses())
        {
            try
            {
                if (String.Compare(pp.MainModule.FileName, Application.ExecutablePath, true) == 0)
                {
                    procCount++;                        
                    if(procCount > 1) {
                       Application.Exit();
                       return;
                    }
                }
            }
            catch { }
        }
        Application.Run(new Form1());
}

Answer 20

Be sure to consider security when restricting an application to a single instance:

Full article: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20060620-13/?p=30813

We are using a named mutex with a fixed name in order to detect whether another copy of the program is running. But that also means an attacker can create the mutex first, thereby preventing our program from running at all! How can I prevent this type of denial of service attack?

...

If the attacker is running in the same security context as your program is (or would be) running in, then there is nothing you can do. Whatever "secret handshake" you come up with to determine whether another copy of your program is running, the attacker can mimic it. Since it is running in the correct security context, it can do anything that the "real" program can do.

...

Clearly you can't protect yourself from an attacker running at the same security privilege, but you can still protect yourself against unprivileged attackers running at other security privileges.

Try setting a DACL on your mutex, here's the .NET way: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.accesscontrol.mutexsecurity(v=vs.110).aspx

Answer 21

None of this answers worked for me because I needed this to work under Linux using monodevelop. This works great for me:

Call this method passing it a unique ID

    public static void PreventMultipleInstance(string applicationId)
    {
        // Under Windows this is:
        //      C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Temp\ 
        // Linux this is:
        //      /tmp/
        var temporaryDirectory = Path.GetTempPath();

        // Application ID (Make sure this guid is different accross your different applications!
        var applicationGuid = applicationId + ".process-lock";

        // file that will serve as our lock
        var fileFulePath = Path.Combine(temporaryDirectory, applicationGuid);

        try
        {
            // Prevents other processes from reading from or writing to this file
            var _InstanceLock = new FileStream(fileFulePath, FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite, FileShare.None);
            _InstanceLock.Lock(0, 0);
            MonoApp.Logger.LogToDisk(LogType.Notification, "04ZH-EQP0", "Aquired Lock", fileFulePath);

            // todo investigate why we need a reference to file stream. Without this GC releases the lock!
            System.Timers.Timer t = new System.Timers.Timer()
            {
                Interval = 500000,
                Enabled = true,
            };
            t.Elapsed += (a, b) =>
            {
                try
                {
                    _InstanceLock.Lock(0, 0);
                }
                catch
                {
                    MonoApp.Logger.Log(LogType.Error, "AOI7-QMCT", "Unable to lock file");
                }
            };
            t.Start();

        }
        catch
        {
            // Terminate application because another instance with this ID is running
            Environment.Exit(102534); 
        }
    }         

Answer 22

Normally it's done with a named Mutex (use new Mutex( "your app name", true ) and check the return value), but there's also some support classes in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll that can do it for you.