asked on

Trying to track the number of times a program has been executed from the Quick Launch toolbar.

I need to track the number of times over a time period that a program has been launched from the Windows Quick Launch toolbar. Additionally I need to know the last access time, etc. I need a method in C# to acomplish this either by reading the registry or by obtaining the information from the toolbar itself.

Thanks

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

arnold

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

pepepaco

if you dont have control or source code of the desired application you must create the launcher as arnold suggest, you can also create a service or always running monitor that detects if certain process is running and do almost the same thing. Both ways are easy.

Create a launcher in C# application to do everything you need.
1. Launch the application.
2. Count the # times.
3. Record the datetime.

OR

to Create the Service.
1.create Run and stay in memory program. (windowless)
2.make the application search for certain running process and record the time when it was found
3. check if the desired process goes off and record that time also.
4.to know the # times it went on off just check how many times it pass from off to on,
5. you will know also how much time it was running and when was the last running time.


--examples from http://blogs.msdn.com/csharpfaq/archive/2004/06/01/146375.aspx
--Example 1. Running a command line application, without concern for the results:
 
private void simpleRun_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e){
 System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(@"C:\listfiles.bat");
}
--Example 2. Retrieving the results and waiting until the process stops (running the process synchronously):
 
private void runSyncAndGetResults_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e){
 System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo psi =
   new System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo(@"C:\listfiles.bat");
 psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
 psi.WindowStyle = System.Diagnostics.ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
 psi.UseShellExecute = false;
 System.Diagnostics.Process listFiles;
 listFiles = System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(psi);
 System.IO.StreamReader myOutput = listFiles.StandardOutput;
 listFiles.WaitForExit(2000);
 if (listFiles.HasExited)
  {
  string output = myOutput.ReadToEnd();
  this.processResults.Text = output;
 }
}
 
//check for a running process:
//Example from http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet1541.htm
//Namespaces we need to use
using System.Diagnostics;
 
public bool IsProcessOpen(string name)
{
	//here we're going to get a list of all running processes on
	//the computer
	foreach (Process clsProcess in Process.GetProcesses) {
		//now we're going to see if any of the running processes
		//match the currently running processes. Be sure to not
		//add the .exe to the name you provide, i.e: NOTEPAD,
		//not NOTEPAD.EXE or false is always returned even if
		//notepad is running.
		//Remember, if you have the process running more than once, 
		//say IE open 4 times the loop thr way it is now will close all 4,
		//if you want it to just close the first one it finds
		//then add a return; after the Kill
		if (clsProcess.ProcessName.Contains(name))
		{
			//if the process is found to be running then we
			//return a true
			return true;
		}
	}
	//otherwise we return a false
	return false;
}
 
 
//hope this help.

Open in new window