Detect number of processes running with the same name

Question

Any ideas of how to write a function that returns the number of instances of a process is running?

Perhaps something like this?

function numInstances([string]$process)
{
    $i = 0
    while(<we can get a new process with name $process>)
    {
        $i++
    }

    return $i
}

Edit: Started to write a function... It works for a single instance but it goes into an infinite loop if more than one instance is running:

function numInstances([string]$process)
{
$i = 0
$ids = @()
while(((get-process $process) | where {$ids -notcontains $_.ID}) -ne $null)
    {
    $ids += (get-process $process).ID
    $i++
    }

return $i
}

Matt · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-15T22:12:56.830

22

function numInstances([string]$process)
{
    @(get-process -ea silentlycontinue $process).count
}

EDIT: added the silently continue and array cast to work with zero and one processes.

edited Mar 15 '13 at 22:12

answered Jul 08 '11 at 11:44

Matt

1,931
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20

Never thought it could be so simple! – Jack Jul 08 '11 at 11:50
1

I think this does not work well for 0 and 1 instance. Take a look at my answer. – Roman Kuzmin Jul 08 '11 at 11:52
@roman good point - i like that you casted the response as an array – Matt Jul 08 '11 at 12:00
@Jack - PowerShell rocks with a short Ballard ;-) – Matt Jul 08 '11 at 12:03

Roman Kuzmin · Answer 2 · 2011-07-08T12:14:11.840

This works for me:

function numInstances([string]$process)
{
    @(Get-Process $process -ErrorAction 0).Count
}

# 0
numInstances notepad

# 1
Start-Process notepad
numInstances notepad

# many
Start-Process notepad
numInstances notepad

Output:

0
1
2

Though it is simple there are two important points in this solution: 1) use -ErrorAction 0 (0 is the same as SilentlyContinue), so that it works well when there are no specified processes; 2) use the array operator @() so that it works when there is a single process instance.

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 08 '11 at 11:43

7

Its much easier to use the built-in cmdlet group-object:

 get-process | Group-Object -Property ProcessName

answered Jul 08 '11 at 11:43

Chad Miller

40,127
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score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 08 '17 at 19:29

5

There is a nice one-liner : (ps).count

answered Mar 08 '17 at 19:29

wwebec

51
1
2

1

OP asked about same name process count. How does this help? – hypers Oct 27 '17 at 11:50
2

If you need the same process count you can use argument -Name, eg. `(ps -Name 'Wmi*').count` – wwebec Nov 19 '19 at 09:49

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 29 '18 at 14:58

3

(Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'Chrome'}).count

This will return you the number of processes with same name running. you can add filters to further format your data.

answered Jul 29 '18 at 14:58

ArunAshokan

55
1
10

Detect number of processes running with the same name

5 Answers5

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