Detecting application launches

Nope there's no windows message that notifies your app that a second one was launched.
A windows hook would be one possibility to detect the launch though.

Markus

I'm not looking to see if my app is run again, I'm wanting to monitor all application activity. If you have any info on windows hooks to do this I will award the points, any answer to this would be great :)

Mat,

I was not talking about a second instance of your application, I meant a totally different application (I think that's what you are aiming at, right ;-)).
What kind of activity are you after? If you just want to know if app xy is launched, you could do it with a hook (if you got the classname, window title, ... of it).
If nobody else has a better idea I'll have a look at my personal code library for an example! ;-)

Markus

Markus

Ok, just double checking... A present it will be monitoring game launches. I could put a fake exe file there that send all teh params on and reports, but it's a lot of hassle for end users (and I don't even know if my idea will work), so I was hoping to find out when a game gets launched and what params are used :)

Have to say I've never done hooks before.

btw: the sample above subclasses notepad, just compile, run it and open notepad...

you can use the IShellExecuteHook (doesn't 'catch' the apps run with CreateProcess)
http://www.delphi-si.com/forum/prikazisporocila.php?tema=271&mesto=0

// main unit source
unit mainunit;

interface

uses
  Windows, ActiveX, ComObj, ShlObj, ShellAPI, SysUtils;

type
  TTShellExeWiz = class(TComObject, IShellExecuteHook)
  protected
    {Declare IShellExecuteHook methods here}
    function Execute(var ShellExecuteInfo: TShellExecuteInfo): HResult; stdcall;
  end;

const
  Class_TShellExeWiz: TGUID = '{EEF655B2-0ADA-11D3-A850-00A0240CD0D7}';

implementation

uses ComServ, Dialogs;

{ TTShellExeWiz }

function TTShellExeWiz.Execute(
  var ShellExecuteInfo: TShellExecuteInfo): HResult;
begin
 Result := S_FALSE; // Allow the action to be processed

 with ShellExecuteInfo do
    begin
        if (Pos('notepad', ExtractFileName(lpFile)) > 0) then
            begin
                hInstApp := 33; // Must be >32 not to be an error
                Result := S_OK;
                ShowMessage('Jurk pa ne pusti zagnat Notepad.exe :-)');
            end;
    end;
end;

initialization
  TComObjectFactory.Create(ComServer, TTShellExeWiz, Class_TShellExeWiz,
    'TShellExeWiz', '', ciMultiInstance, tmApartment);
end.



// dll source
library IShellHook;

uses
  ComServ,
  Registry,
  ActiveX,
  Windows,
  mainu in 'mainu.pas',
  IShellHook_TLB in 'IShellHook_TLB.pas';

function DllRegisterServer: HResult;
begin
     Result:=ComServ.DllRegisterServer;
     if Failed(Result) then exit;
     with TRegistry.Create do
       try
          RootKey:=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
          if OpenKey('Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\ShellExecuteHooks', false) then begin
             try
                WriteString('{EEF655B2-0ADA-11D3-A850-00A0240CD0D7}', 'ShellExecCOMHook');
                Result:=S_OK;
             except
                Result:=E_FAIL;
             end;
             CloseKey;
          end;
       finally
          Free;
       end;
end;

function DllUnregisterServer: HResult;
begin
     Result:=ComServ.DllUnRegisterServer;
     if Failed(Result) then exit;
     with TRegistry.Create do
       try
          RootKey:=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
          if OpenKey('Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\ShellExecuteHooks', false) then begin
             if DeleteValue('ShellExecCOMHook') then
                Result:=S_OK;
             CloseKey;
          end;
       finally
          Free;
       end;
end;


exports
  DllGetClassObject,
  DllCanUnloadNow,
  DllRegisterServer,
  DllUnregisterServer;

{$R *.TLB}

{$R *.RES}

begin
end.






I'll try to find the complete project and post a link to it

DaFox - Works well.... I'm trying to figure out how to adapt this to watch all run apps, or how to remove the hook automatically after the info has been checked/tested

Lee - Can't find the IShellHook_TLB  unit

Thanks guys for the help, I've upped points to 200 to grab for you help

Hi, the code that i sent to you shows how to implement the communication mechanism between the dll and the Delphi app. It does not cover the shellexecute hook as it was covered in a previous post. I will check your code and see what can be done...