Launch an Executable Programatically on Windows Mobile using CreateProcess and C#

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Introduction

Perhaps it is just me, but there are a number of times when I have found that I needed to launch (or shell) an executable from within my application. For the most part, I have had to do this to launch a data synchronization client but I am sure there are a number of other reasons why you would need to do this on Windows Mobile. I was somewhat surprised that there were very few examples (that I could find) on how to do this on Windows Mobile.

Although there seem to be many ways to do this, my personal preference has been to use CreateProcess. I like this because it gives me the ability to either launch the executable and return immediately or I can sit and wait for the application to complete.

This article is meant to explain how I have used the CreateProcess function to launch an executable. If you know of a better way to do this or know how I can improve the code, I would love to hear from you. If not, I hope you find the code helpful.

Requirements

The following tools are required to get started with developing the application:

• Visual Studio .NET 2005
• Windows Mobile 5 Software Development Kits (Standard and Professional)
• Windows Mobile 5 Device or Emulator

Using the Code

The application itself is fairly straightforward. The first thing you will need to do in your application is to add a reference to the following namespace:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

Once that is done, you will also need the following declarations in order to execute a program:

public class ProcessInfo
{
	public IntPtr hProcess;
	public IntPtr hThread;
	public IntPtr ProcessID;
	public IntPtr ThreadID;
}

[DllImport("CoreDll.DLL", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int CreateProcess(String imageName, String cmdLine, 
	IntPtr lpProcessAttributes, IntPtr lpThreadAttributes, 
	Int32 boolInheritHandles, Int32 dwCreationFlags, IntPtr lpEnvironment, 
	IntPtr lpszCurrentDir, byte[] si, ProcessInfo pi);

[DllImport("coredll")]
private static extern bool CloseHandle(IntPtr hObject);

[DllImport("coredll")]
private static extern uint WaitForSingleObject
			(IntPtr hHandle, uint dwMilliseconds);

[DllImport("coredll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int GetExitCodeProcess
			(IntPtr hProcess, ref int lpExitCode);

Additionally, we need the following function to make it easier to launch the executable. Notice the line which uses WaitForSingleObject. This line can be commented out if you do not want to wait for the application to complete.

private void LaunchApp(string strPath, string strParms)
{
	ProcessInfo pi = new ProcessInfo();
	byte[] si = new byte[128];
	CreateProcess(strPath, strParms, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero, 
		0, 0, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero, si, pi);
	// This line can be commented out if you do not want 
	// to wait for the process to exit
	WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, 0xFFFFFFFF);
	int exitCode = 0;
	GetExitCodeProcess(pi.hProcess, ref exitCode);
	CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
	CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
	return;
}

Now launching the application is simple. The following line will launch the executable with the appropriate parameters:

LaunchApp(textEXE.Text, textParms.Text);

History

• 4^th July, 2007: Initial post

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)