Change name of process in Task Manager [duplicate]

Question

I have a windows form application running on a server. Now I need to have multiple instances of the same application running at the same time. Each instance will connect to a different database. During the application startup I change the title so I can identify which DB is connecting to, but I'd like to change the name in the Task Manager also. This because I have another application that act as a supervisor, killing and starting the process as needed. I have to find a way to clearly identify the process to kill.

Quell

Can your Supervisor app be the one who starts the processes so that you have the PIDs from the start? Or does it need to be able to run separately? – Carom

@Destrictor: I do not believe this is the same question. He wants to have multiple instances with different names, not just one new name. – Carom

Destrictor the link does not provide any real solution WabeMax look at this answer for an alternative way of doing this #1017323 – Muscadine

@leppie That won't work. Task manager shows the name of the original executable (e.g. try mklink foo.exe %windir%\system32\notepad.exe, will still show notepad.exe in Task Manager). – Alerion

Yes, usually the Supervisor is the one that starts the process, but that's not a guarantee. Sometimes some "admin" user play God killing and starting processes manually. – Quell

@Christian.K: Oops, my bad :) – Ramah

Make a copy of the exe. Rename to liking. – Ramah

Sorry leppie, your comment was hiding behind the "show more" before I posted my comment. – Kerrykersey

Answer 1

Have your supervisor create a temporary copy of the executable, including your identifying information, and start that... so that Task Manager will look like

My process - database 1.exe
My process - database 2.exe
et cetera

Kerrykersey

Answer 2

If the Supervisor program is the one starting the processes, you will have full control over these child processes. You can easily kill/start them as you need. Use Process as needed.

using System.Diagnostics;

Process p1 = new Process();
Process p2 = new Process();
Process p3 = new Process();

p1.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
p2.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
p3.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";

//start the procs
p1.Start();
p2.Start();
p3.Start();

//kill the procs
p1.Kill();
p2.Kill();
p3.Kill();

If you want some superuser to have access to kill the process, why not let them just do it with the GUI? If there is no GUI, how are they running the program? Is it started via cmd?

Copied from my comment below:

If the user wants to be able to kill the process from the taskmanager specifically, they can use the applications tab to pick the correct process (you will need to give it a unique window title), then they can right click>Go To process and kill from there.

Carom

There is a GUI with a "Stop" button, it's just that those "superuser" feel like it's more "professional" to kill via Task Manager. – Quell

Haha... ok... Maybe put a unique identifier in the title window. For example, "Program DB-ABC", then they can click "Go to process" from the applications tab for that window. You could also display the current PID somewhere, and they can use command prompt to kill the process. ex: TASKKILL /PID 1230 – Carom