A better way of finding out if any running process was launched from a given file?

Question

I have to check whether another process is running, based only on the name of the EXE file.

Currently I get the process list and then query the MainModule.FileName property, however some processes throw Win32Exception "Unable to enumerate the process modules" when you access the MainModule property. Currently I am filtering to a 'safe list' by catching these access exceptions thus:

List<Process> processes = new List<Process>(Process.GetProcesses());

// Slow, but failsafe.  As we are dealing with core system
// data which we cannot filter easily, we have to use the absense of
// exceptions as a logic flow control.
List<Process> safeProcesses = new List<Process>();
foreach (Process p in processes)
{
    try
    {
        ProcessModule pm = p.MainModule;
        // Some system processes (like System and Idle)
        // will throw an exception when accessing the main module.
        // So if we got this far, we can add to the safe list
        safeProcesses.Add(p);
    }
    catch { } // Exception for logic flow only.
}

Needless to say I really don't like having to use exceptions like this.

Is there a better way to get the process list for which I can access the MainModule property, or even a better method of checking if any process was spawned from a given file?

Answer 1

I think that there are only System and Idle processes that will throw the exception so you can filter them out before and you're ready to go.