Delphi, Windows: Best way to find whether web-browser is running? - windows

Question

What is the best way to find whether a web-browser is running?
Using Delphi XE2 and on Windows, I need to find whether the following web-browsers are currently running:
A) Mozilla Firefox
B) Apple Safari
C) Google Chrome
If found, the process will be terminated because the home page of the web-browser needs to be changed programmatically by modifying the web-browser configuration files (which is either not possible or could result in unpredictable results if done when the web-browser is running).
Does the output from the EnumWindows API function contain sufficient information needed to handle the above task? If yes, then are the window class names for each of the above web-browsers documented anywhere? If no, then which method is most reliable?
TIA.

Answer 1

Terminate a process without the user permission is not good practice, instead you must ask to the user if he wants terminate the app (in this case the web browser).
Now back to your question, you can detect if a app(webbroser) is running checking for the process name (firefox.exe, chrome.exe , safari.exe) using the CreateToolhelp32Snapshot method.
uses
Windows,
tlhelp32,
SysUtils;
function IsProcessRunning(const ListProcess: Array of string): boolean;
var
hSnapshot : THandle;
lppe : TProcessEntry32;
I : Integer;
begin
result:=false;
hSnapshot := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
if hSnapshot <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
try
lppe.dwSize := SizeOf(lppe);
if Process32First(hSnapshot, lppe) then
repeat
for I := Low(ListProcess) to High(ListProcess) do
if SameText(lppe.szExeFile, ListProcess[i]) then
Exit(True);
until not Process32Next(hSnapshot, lppe);
finally
CloseHandle(hSnapshot);
end;
end;
and use like so
IsProcessRunning(['firefox.exe','chrome.exe','safari.exe'])
Now if you want a more reliable way you can search for the class name of the Window (using the FindWindowEx method) and then the PID of the process owner of the handle (using GetWindowThreadProcessId), from here you can use the PID of the process to resolve the name of exe.
{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}
uses
Windows,
tlhelp32,
SysUtils;
function GetProcessName(const th32ProcessID: DWORD): string;
var
hSnapshot : THandle;
lppe : TProcessEntry32;
begin
result:='';
hSnapshot := CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);
if hSnapshot <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
try
lppe.dwSize := SizeOf(lppe);
if Process32First(hSnapshot, lppe) then
repeat
if lppe.th32ProcessID=th32ProcessID then
Exit(lppe.szExeFile);
until not Process32Next(hSnapshot, lppe);
finally
CloseHandle(hSnapshot);
end;
end;
function IsWebBrowserRunning(const ClassName, ExeName :string) : Boolean;
var
hWindow : THandle;
dwProcessId: DWORD;
begin
result:=False;
hWindow:= FindWindowEx(0, 0, PChar(ClassName), nil);
if hWindow<>0 then
begin
dwProcessId:=0;
GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWindow, dwProcessId);
if dwProcessId>0 then
exit(Sametext(GetProcessName(dwProcessId),ExeName));
end;
end;
begin
try
if IsWebBrowserRunning('MozillaWindowClass','firefox.exe') then
Writeln('Firefox is Running');
if IsWebBrowserRunning('{1C03B488-D53B-4a81-97F8-754559640193}','safari.exe') then
Writeln('Safari is Running');
if IsWebBrowserRunning('Chrome_WidgetWin_1','chrome.exe') then
Writeln('Chrome is Running');
except
on E: Exception do
Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
end;
readln;
end.