Is there a windows message that I can hook for when an application starts?

Question

I want to know whenever any application starts. Is there a windows message that I can set a hook for to know exactly when that happens?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

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If polling is not a problem you could use one of the approaches described in the answers to a related question:

C# Process Monitor

The suggested solutions use WMI or Windows audit process tracking mechanism.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Jan 22 '10 at 00:15

Dirk Vollmar

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Wow, I think that can work really well for what I am trying to do. Great suggestion! – Mike Pateras Jan 22 '10 at 01:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 21 '10 at 23:58

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The first message sent to new windows is WM_NCCREATE. But this has nothing to do with the process itself, which is what I suspect you're asking? By definition 'window messages' will start to arrive only after you create a window (using CreateWindowEx or whatever), but that can happen long after the process has started.

You don't say what language/framework you're using. In VC++ and the like you can just use whatever passes for the WinMain function. For VB it would be a Main function in a module.

answered Jan 21 '10 at 23:58

kprobst

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Thank you for yoru response. If I used WM_NCCREATE, would I be able to know which process was started? It sounds like I wouldn't, from your comment. I'll be using C++ for the hook. What difference would that make? – Mike Pateras Jan 22 '10 at 01:04

Is there a windows message that I can hook for when an application starts?

2 Answers2