Home/ Questions/Q 7977181
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-04T09:07:17+00:00

I can’t see how Process.WaitForInputIdle() can return anything but true or throw an exception,

  • 0

I can’t see how Process.WaitForInputIdle() can return anything but true or throw an exception, but in documentation for that method is stated :

Return Value

Type: System.Boolean

true if the associated process has reached an idle state.

That if is confusing me, is that only documentation copy / paste from overloaded version of for method that have wait parameter or I am not understanding something ?

UPDATE

To clarify my question, I am aware how Process.WaitForInputIdle() works, just courious if it can returns false in some conditions.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I think this might be an operating system compatibility problem. Not sure, I don’t have reliable docs for Windows 98 anymore. The key issue is that it pinvokes the native winapi WaitForInputIdle() function, passing int.MaxValue (0x7ffffffff) instead of INFINITE (-1). So this call can actually time-out, after 24.85 days.

    This restriction appears in more than one place, the System.Windows.Automation.Provider.WaitForInputIdle(int) method also specifies a maximum value of int.MaxValue.

    So yes, if you get false then your program has been asleep for 25 days. Time to call it quits 🙂

    • 0