The best way to register process start time?

Question

I am writing a program that must register time of starting a process such as notepad. I thought that it is good to create a Timer that checks all of processes every second. But I think that it will slow down the user's computer. Is there a better way of doing this?

Answer 1

Initially determine for all running processes the creation time. Then use WMI to register for process creation events.

See the code below for a small example on how to use WMI for process creation events:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
  using (ManagementEventWatcher eventWatcher =
            new ManagementEventWatcher(@"SELECT * FROM 
   __InstanceCreationEvent WITHIN 1 WHERE TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_Process'"))
  {
    // Subscribe for process creation notification.
    eventWatcher.EventArrived += ProcessStarted_EventArrived; 
    eventWatcher.Start();
    Console.In.ReadLine();
    eventWatcher.EventArrived -= ProcessStarted_EventArrived;
    eventWatcher.Stop();
  }
}


static void ProcessStarted_EventArrived(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{
  ManagementBaseObject obj = e.NewEvent["TargetInstance"] as ManagementBaseObject;

  // The Win32_Process class also contains a CreationDate property.
  Console.Out.WriteLine("ProcessName: {0} " + obj.Properties["Name"].Value);
}

BEGIN EDIT:

I've further investigated process creation detection with WMI and there is a (more) resouces friendly solution (but needs administrative privileges) using the Win32_ProcessStartTrace class (please see TECHNET for further information):

using (ManagementEventWatcher eventWatcher =
          new ManagementEventWatcher(@"SELECT * FROM Win32_ProcessStartTrace"))
{
  // Subscribe for process creation notification.
  eventWatcher.EventArrived += ProcessStarted_EventArrived;
  eventWatcher.Start();
  Console.Out.WriteLine("started");
  Console.In.ReadLine();
  eventWatcher.EventArrived -= ProcessStarted_EventArrived;
  eventWatcher.Stop();
}

static void ProcessStarted_EventArrived(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{               
  Console.Out.WriteLine("ProcessName: {0} " 
          + e.NewEvent.Properties["ProcessName"].Value);     
}

In this solution you do not have to set an polling interval.

END EDIT

BEGIN EDIT 2:

You could use the Win32_ProcessStopTrace class to monitor process stop events. To combine both process start and process stop events use the Win32_ProcessTrace class. In the event handler use the ClassPath proberty to distinguish between start/stop events:

using (ManagementEventWatcher eventWatcher =
       new ManagementEventWatcher(@"SELECT * FROM Win32_ProcessTrace"))
{          
  eventWatcher.EventArrived += Process_EventArrived;
  eventWatcher.Start();
  Console.Out.WriteLine("started");
  Console.In.ReadLine();
  eventWatcher.EventArrived -= Process_EventArrived;
  eventWatcher.Stop();
}

static void Process_EventArrived(object sender, EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{
  Console.Out.WriteLine(e.NewEvent.ClassPath); // Use class path to distinguish
                                               // between start/stop process events.
  Console.Out.WriteLine("ProcessName: {0} " 
      + e.NewEvent.Properties["ProcessName"].Value);     
}

END EDIT 2

Answer 2

There is no need to monitor anything at all. All you need to do is to enumerate your processes and fetch from the Process Instances StartTime.