How to monitor that an application is opened?

Question

I'm implementing a desktop analytics application that needs to record the names and times of programs a user opens on the PC. It's a C# (WPF) application that starts when the user logs on and runs without a UI. For programs such as Word or IE it would also capture what document or Url they are viewing.

Currently I have a working solution as follows:

Install a Windows Hook for Mouse Down. When that event fires I use p-Invoke to "GetForegroundWindow" and then use the window handle to "GetWindowThreadProcessId", with the ProcessId I can get the System.Diagnostics.Process object containing the name, start time and argument start list. I maintain a history list so I only write a tracking entry if this processId/window handle combination has not been recorded before.

This solution does work ok but requires the mouse hook which can get dropped by Windows without any notification or ability to problematically check if it is still hooked. Not to mention this implementation seems like a hack.

If there is a better more straightforward approach please advise.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use the __InstanceCreationEvent event and the Win32_Process WMI class to monitor the created processes.

Try this sample C# application

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Management;
using System.Text;


namespace GetWMI_Info
{
    public class EventWatcherAsync 
    {
        private void WmiEventHandler(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
        {
            //in this point the new events arrives
            //you can access to any property of the Win32_Process class
            Console.WriteLine("TargetInstance.Handle :    " + ((ManagementBaseObject)e.NewEvent.Properties["TargetInstance"].Value)["Handle"]);
            Console.WriteLine("TargetInstance.Name :      " + ((ManagementBaseObject)e.NewEvent.Properties["TargetInstance"].Value)["Name"]);

        }

        public EventWatcherAsync()
        {
            try
            {
                string ComputerName = "localhost";
                string WmiQuery;
                ManagementEventWatcher Watcher;
                ManagementScope Scope;                

                Scope = new ManagementScope(String.Format("\\\\{0}\\root\\CIMV2", ComputerName), null);
                Scope.Connect();

                WmiQuery ="Select * From __InstanceCreationEvent Within 1 "+
                "Where TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_Process' ";

                Watcher = new ManagementEventWatcher(Scope, new EventQuery(WmiQuery));
                Watcher.EventArrived += new EventArrivedEventHandler(this.WmiEventHandler);
                Watcher.Start();
                Console.Read();
                Watcher.Stop();
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Exception {0} Trace {1}", e.Message, e.StackTrace);
            }

        }

        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
           Console.WriteLine("Listening process creation, Press Enter to exit");
           EventWatcherAsync eventWatcher = new EventWatcherAsync();
           Console.Read();
        }
    }
}