Starting another application from within C# code

Question

How can I start another application from within C# code? I can't get this piece to work correctly

    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@"%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Google\Application\chrome.exe");

Edit: Wow I was dumb and just noticed what I forgot in the filepath. Thanks for the answers though they helped teach me some other useful things.

You could also just get the value of the env var from the `Environment` class. — leppie, Jan 03 '12 at 07:10
It won't work if Chrome isn't installed, or isn't installed in that path. — Cody Gray - on strike, Jan 03 '12 at 07:11
That's principally correct, though I'm not sure whether Process.Start resolves %userprofile% or not. Also, by default, Chrome.exe is not installed in the path you indicate. — Eric J., Jan 03 '12 at 07:13
@EricJ. I have the dev version of Chrome installed and it automatically went there. — Rumel, Jan 03 '12 at 07:47

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 03 '12 at 07:17

10

I don't think Process.Start expands environment variables for you. Try this:

var path = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Google\Application\chrome.exe");
Process.Start(path);

answered Jan 03 '12 at 07:17

ChrisWue

18,612
4
58
83

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:09

try this link for starting external program Also try this Similar Question on stackoverFlow

this is an example here

 string winpath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("windir");
 string path = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(
              System.Windows.Forms.Application.ExecutablePath);

 Process.Start(winpath + @"\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.0.3705\Installutil.exe",
 path + "\\MyService.exe");

And in your case ,write the following on top where all the using namespaces are listed

        using System.Diagnostics;
        using System;

so then in your code directly write the above code...

Starting another application from within C# code

2 Answers2