Question

I understand how to force a single instance of an application using a mutex and this is what I use.

Several of my users have asked me to allow multiple instances to run. I don’t want to remove the control code as I can see it as a recipe for disaster since multiple instances could be writing to the same files, log and so on.

I perhaps could handle things if the number of instances is limited to two. My current idea is to allow the first one to run as the active one and a second in some form of read-only mode.

So how would I control the number of instances to no more than two?

Thanks

Answer 1

bool IsFree = false;


Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, "MutexValue1", out IsFree);

if(!IsFree)
    mutex = new Mutex(true, "MutexValue2", out IsFree);

if(!IsFree)
{
    //two instances are already running
}