How can I get the application name after it has been renamed?

Question

After changing the executable name while the application is running, both GetModuleFileName and GetModuleFileNameEx using PID return the original file name.

How can I get the new file name or even detect the change? Ideally I would prefer not to use FindFirstChangeNotification.

Answer 1

Use QueryFullProcessImageName.

I have met the same problem, and tried GetModuleFileName, GetProcessImageFileName and QueryFullProcessImageName. The last one can work.

This is a simple demo I wrote.

#include <Windows.h>
#include <Psapi.h>
#include <stdio.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "Psapi.lib")

void OutputSelfpath()
{
    char szFile[MAX_PATH] = {0};
    GetModuleFileName(NULL, szFile, MAX_PATH);
    printf("GetModuleFileName:\n\r%s\n\n", szFile);

    memset(szFile, 0, MAX_PATH);

    HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, GetCurrentProcessId());
    if (!hProcess)
    {
        printf("OpenProcess failed!\n");
    }
    else
    {
        DWORD dwRet = GetProcessImageFileName(hProcess, szFile, MAX_PATH);
        if (dwRet)
        {
            printf("GetProcessImageFileName:\n\r%s\n\n", szFile);
        }
        else
        {
            printf("GetProcessImageFileName failed!\n");
        }

        memset(szFile, 0, MAX_PATH);
        DWORD dwSize = MAX_PATH;
        if (QueryFullProcessImageName(hProcess, 0, szFile, &dwSize))
        {
            printf("QueryFullProcessImageName:\n\r%s\n\n", szFile);
        }
        else
        {
            printf("QueryFullProcessImageName failed\n", szFile);
        }
    }
}

int main()
{
    const char* pszFile = "ConsoleTest.exe";
    const char* pszNewFile = "ConsoleTest_bak.exe";
    remove(pszNewFile);

    OutputSelfpath();

    int nRet = rename(pszFile, pszNewFile);

    if (0 != nRet)
    {
        printf("rename file failed!\n");
    }
    else
    {
        printf("################### after rename ###################\n\n");
        OutputSelfpath();
    }

    system("pause");
    return 0;
}

result:

GetModuleFileName:
E:\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest.exe

GetProcessImageFileName:
\Device\HarddiskVolume3\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest.exe

QueryFullProcessImageName:
E:\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest.exe

################### after rename ###################

GetModuleFileName:
E:\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest.exe

GetProcessImageFileName:
\Device\HarddiskVolume3\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest.exe

QueryFullProcessImageName:
E:\own-sources\ConsoleTest\Debug\ConsoleTest_bak.exe

I have wrote a blog post about this, see here.