Checking if given process is running

Question

When I use the following function as isRunning("example.exe"); it always returns 0 no matter if the process is running or not.

I tried making it std::cout << pe.szExeFile; in the do-while loop and it outputs all the processes in the same format as I am trying to pass the function.

The project is multi-byte character set, in case that makes a difference.

bool isRunning(CHAR process_[])
{
    HANDLE pss = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPALL, 0);

    PROCESSENTRY32 pe = { 0 };
    pe.dwSize = sizeof(pe);

    if (Process32First(pss, &pe))
    {
        do
        {
            if (pe.szExeFile == process_)  // if(!strcmp(pe.szExeFile, process_)) is the correct line here
                return true; // If you use this remember to close the handle here too with CloseHandle(pss);
        } while (Process32Next(pss, &pe));
    }

CloseHandle(pss);

return false;
}

Can't seem to find my mistake. Thanks for your time.

Answer 1

You are using if (pe.szExeFile == process_) which compares the pointer values. You should be using something like strcmp or _stricmp to compare the actual string values instead.

e.g.

if(strcmp (pe.szExeFile, process_) == 0)
  return true;