Question

My application need to wait until specific process will be started. I am doing it this way

while (Process.GetProcessesByName("someProcess").Length == 0)
{
    Thread.Sleep(100);
}

Is there any other way(more elegant) how to accomplish this, with functionality similar to WaitForExit()? Thanks for answers.

Answer 1

Take a look at the ManagementEventWatcher class.

Specifically, the code example at the bottom of the link shows you how to setup a ManagementEventWatcher to be notified when a new process is created.

Code copied from MSDN code example (could stand a little cleanup):

using System;
using System.Management;

// This example shows synchronous consumption of events. 
// The client is blocked while waiting for events. 

public class EventWatcherPolling 
{
    public static int Main(string[] args) 
    {
        // Create event query to be notified within 1 second of 
        // a change in a service
        WqlEventQuery query = 
            new WqlEventQuery("__InstanceCreationEvent", 
            new TimeSpan(0,0,1), 
            "TargetInstance isa \"Win32_Process\"");

        // Initialize an event watcher and subscribe to events 
        // that match this query
        ManagementEventWatcher watcher =
            new ManagementEventWatcher();
        watcher.Query = query;
        // times out watcher.WaitForNextEvent in 5 seconds
        watcher.Options.Timeout = new TimeSpan(0,0,5);

        // Block until the next event occurs 
        // Note: this can be done in a loop if waiting for 
        //        more than one occurrence
        Console.WriteLine(
            "Open an application (notepad.exe) to trigger an event.");
        ManagementBaseObject e = watcher.WaitForNextEvent();

        //Display information from the event
        Console.WriteLine(
            "Process {0} has been created, path is: {1}", 
            ((ManagementBaseObject)e
            ["TargetInstance"])["Name"],
            ((ManagementBaseObject)e
            ["TargetInstance"])["ExecutablePath"]);

        //Cancel the subscription
        watcher.Stop();
        return 0;
    }
}

Edit

Simplifed example with TargetInstance.Name = 'someProcess' filter added.

  var query = new WqlEventQuery(
                "__InstanceCreationEvent", 
                new TimeSpan(0, 0, 1), 
                "TargetInstance isa \"Win32_Process\" and TargetInstance.Name = 'someProcess'"
              );

  using(var watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(query))
  {
    ManagementBaseObject e = watcher.WaitForNextEvent();

    //someProcess created.

    watcher.Stop();
  }