How can I get a process handle by its name in C

Question

I m trying to get the process handle of  say example exe  so I can call TerminateProcess on it  How can I do this  Notice  it doesn t have a window so FindWindow won t work

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The following code can be used   DWORD FindProcessId const std  wstring amp  processName        PROCESSENTRY32 processInfo      processInfo dwSize   sizeof processInfo        HANDLE processesSnapshot   CreateToolhelp32Snapshot TH32CS SNAPPROCESS  NULL       if  processesSnapshot    INVALID HANDLE VALUE            return 0             Process32First processesSnapshot   amp processInfo       if   processName compare processInfo szExeFile                 CloseHandle processesSnapshot           return processInfo th32ProcessID             while  Process32Next processesSnapshot   amp processInfo                 if   processName compare processInfo szExeFile                         CloseHandle processesSnapshot               return processInfo th32ProcessID                       CloseHandle processesSnapshot       return 0      Usage   auto processId   FindProcessId L blabla exe      Getting a handle should be obvious  just call OpenProcess   or similar on it

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OpenProcess Function   From MSDN   To open a handle to another local process and obtain full access rights  you must enable the SeDebugPrivilege privilege

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Check out  MSDN Article  You can use GetModuleName  I think   to get the name and check against that

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There are two basic techniques  The first uses PSAPI  MSDN has an example that uses EnumProcesses  OpenProcess  EnumProcessModules  and GetModuleBaseName   The other uses Toolhelp  which I prefer  Use CreateToolhelp32Snapshot to get a snapshot of the process list  walk over it with Process32First and Process32Next  which provides module name and process ID  until you find the one you want  and then call OpenProcess to get a handle

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If you don t mind using system    doing system  quot taskkill  f  im process exe quot   would be significantly easier than these other methods

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The following code shows how you can use toolhelp and OpenProcess to get a handle to the process   Error handling removed for brevity   HANDLE GetProcessByName PCSTR name        DWORD pid   0          Create toolhelp snapshot      HANDLE snapshot   CreateToolhelp32Snapshot TH32CS SNAPPROCESS  0       PROCESSENTRY32 process      ZeroMemory  amp process  sizeof process        process dwSize   sizeof process           Walkthrough all processes      if  Process32First snapshot   amp process                 do                          Compare process szExeFile based on format of name  i e   trim file path                trim  exe if necessary  etc              if  string process szExeFile     string name                                pid   process th32ProcessID                 break                          while  Process32Next snapshot   amp process               CloseHandle snapshot        if  pid    0                 return OpenProcess PROCESS ALL ACCESS  FALSE  pid                 Not found          return NULL

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include  lt cstdio gt   include  lt windows h gt   include  lt tlhelp32 h gt   int main  int  char             PROCESSENTRY32 entry      entry dwSize   sizeof PROCESSENTRY32        HANDLE snapshot   CreateToolhelp32Snapshot TH32CS SNAPPROCESS  NULL        if  Process32First snapshot   amp entry     TRUE                while  Process32Next snapshot   amp entry     TRUE                        if  stricmp entry szExeFile   target exe      0                                  HANDLE hProcess   OpenProcess PROCESS ALL ACCESS  FALSE  entry th32ProcessID                       Do stuff                    CloseHandle hProcess                                      CloseHandle snapshot        return 0      Also  if you d like to use PROCESS ALL ACCESS in OpenProcess  you could try this    include  lt cstdio gt   include  lt windows h gt   include  lt tlhelp32 h gt   void EnableDebugPriv         HANDLE hToken      LUID luid      TOKEN PRIVILEGES tkp       OpenProcessToken GetCurrentProcess    TOKEN ADJUST PRIVILEGES   TOKEN QUERY   amp hToken        LookupPrivilegeValue NULL  SE DEBUG NAME   amp luid        tkp PrivilegeCount   1      tkp Privileges 0  Luid   luid      tkp Privileges 0  Attributes   SE PRIVILEGE ENABLED       AdjustTokenPrivileges hToken  false   amp tkp  sizeof tkp   NULL  NULL        CloseHandle hToken       int main  int  char             EnableDebugPriv         PROCESSENTRY32 entry      entry dwSize   sizeof PROCESSENTRY32        HANDLE snapshot   CreateToolhelp32Snapshot TH32CS SNAPPROCESS  NULL        if  Process32First snapshot   amp entry     TRUE                while  Process32Next snapshot   amp entry     TRUE                        if  stricmp entry szExeFile   target exe      0                                  HANDLE hProcess   OpenProcess PROCESS ALL ACCESS  FALSE  entry th32ProcessID                       Do stuff                    CloseHandle hProcess                                      CloseHandle snapshot        return 0

[c++] How can I get a process handle by its name in C++?

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