How to detect via Java whether a particular process is running under Windows?

Question

Well the title pretty much sums the question. The only thing I found is this but I'm not sure if thats the way to go.

Answer 1

You can use the wmic utility to check the list of running processes.
Suppose you want to check if the windows' explorer.exe process is running :

String line;
try {
    Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("wmic.exe");
    BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(proc.getInputStream()));
    OutputStreamWriter oStream = new OutputStreamWriter(proc.getOutputStream());
    oStream .write("process where name='explorer.exe'");
    oStream .flush();
    oStream .close();
    while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
        System.out.println(line);
    }
    input.close();
} catch (IOException ioe) {
    ioe.printStackTrace();
}

See http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html or http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/webcasts/wc072402/listofsampleusage.asp for some example of what you can get from wmic...

2022 update

As you can see in the link above, wmic was deprecated in Windows 10. The good news is that now the ps command works on windows 10 under powershell, so you can get your "cross-platform" support with something like this (untested):

public class ProcessInfo {

    static boolean isProcessRunning(String processName) {
        String[] command = new String[]{ "powershell", "ps", processName };
        try {
            if (System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase().contains("linux")) {
                command = new String[]{ "ps", "-o", "comm" };
            }
            Process ps = new ProcessBuilder(command).start();
            return new BufferedReader(
                    new InputStreamReader(ps.getInputStream(), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
            ).lines().anyMatch(line -> line.contains(processName));

        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(String.join(" ", command) + ": No such command on this OS.");
        }
    }

}

Answer 2

os.name should do it. More information here

Answer 3

Depends on what you need to know it for!

Most information can be derived from the default runtime properties, without actually checking the operating system properties.

Have a look at what http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/System.html#getProperties() provides:

java.version    Java Runtime Environment version
java.vendor Java Runtime Environment vendor
java.vendor.url Java vendor URL
java.home   Java installation directory
java.vm.specification.version   Java Virtual Machine specification version
java.vm.specification.vendor    Java Virtual Machine specification vendor
java.vm.specification.name  Java Virtual Machine specification name
java.vm.version Java Virtual Machine implementation version
java.vm.vendor  Java Virtual Machine implementation vendor
java.vm.name    Java Virtual Machine implementation name
java.specification.version  Java Runtime Environment specification version
java.specification.vendor   Java Runtime Environment specification vendor
java.specification.name Java Runtime Environment specification name
java.class.version  Java class format version number
java.class.path Java class path
java.library.path   List of paths to search when loading libraries
java.io.tmpdir  Default temp file path
java.compiler   Name of JIT compiler to use
java.ext.dirs   Path of extension directory or directories
os.name Operating system name
os.arch Operating system architecture
os.version  Operating system version
file.separator  File separator ("/" on UNIX)
path.separator  Path separator (":" on UNIX)
line.separator  Line separator ("\n" on UNIX)
user.name   User's account name
user.home   User's home directory
user.dir    User's current working directory

Answer 4

You are trying to determine if a process you created is still running?

1. If you have the PID the link you posted will do.
2. If the other process is also your own (your code), you can make it get exclusive lock on a file; try locking it from the other code if it succeeds the other process is not running.

Answer 5

I have not tried in non Windows based systems. perhaps the PID divisibility by 4 will provide a clue More info on this PID propery here : About the pid of the process

and here http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/02/28/7925962.aspx