Thread ID From thread name - winapi

How can I get the thread ID of a Win32 thread from the thread name?

Win32 threads don't have names. Did you mean process?

If, by name, you mean HANDLE, you can use :
DWORD WINAPI GetThreadId(
_In_ HANDLE Thread
);
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms683233%28v=vs.85%29.aspx)

Related

Thread wait reasons

I've been using code that I found in the following post:
How to get thread state (e.g. suspended), memory + CPU usage, start time, priority, etc
I'm examining thread state, and there's the following enum that describes the reasons for thread 'waiting' status -
enum KWAIT_REASON
{
Executive,
FreePage,
PageIn,
PoolAllocation,
DelayExecution,
Suspended,
UserRequest,
WrExecutive,
WrFreePage,
WrPageIn,
WrPoolAllocation,
WrDelayExecution,
WrSuspended,
WrUserRequest,
WrEventPair,
WrQueue,
WrLpcReceive,
WrLpcReply,
WrVirtualMemory,
WrPageOut,
WrRendezvous,
Spare2,
Spare3,
Spare4,
Spare5,
Spare6,
WrKernel,
MaximumWaitReason
};
Can anyone explain what WrQueue is, and perhaps what the difference between WrUserRequest and UserRequest is?
The information is obtained using NtQuerySystemInformation() with SystemProcessInformation.
WrQueue this is when thread waits on KQUEUE object (look it definition in wdm.h) in kernel. this can be call to ZwRemoveIoCompletion or Win32 shell GetQueuedCompletionStatus (IOCP is exactly KQUEUE object). or thread (begining from vista) call ZwWaitForWorkViaWorkerFactory (worker factory internally use KQUEUE. also possible that thread in kernel calls KeRemoveQueue - this usually does system working threads.
WrUserRequest is used by win32k.sys subsystem. Usually this is when thread calls GetMessage. So if we view WrUserRequest we can be sure that thread is waiting for window messages.
UserRequest - this means that thread waits on some object[s] via WaitForSingleObject[Ex] or WaitForMultipleObjects[Ex] or MsgWaitForMultipleObjects[Ex] (or it equivalents)

SetWindowsHookEx for current thread returns null

I have an issue trying to get a keyboard hook for the current thread.
Firstly, I needed to get keyboard input for all threads, so I used :
hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, mKeyboardProc, GetModuleHandle(NULL), 0);
This works fine, but when I try to set the dwThreadId parameter (the last one) to GetCurrentThreadId(), SetWindowsHookEx returns NULL.
What could be the problem ?
Thanks.
WH_KEYBOARD_LL is a global hook, as stated in the documentation. That means that you must pass 0 for the thread ID parameter.
You could have diagnosed this yourself had you called GetLastError, as described by the documentation. This would have returned error code ERROR_GLOBAL_ONLY_HOOK, This hook procedure can only be set globally.

Is SendMessage or SendMessageTimout thread safe?

I have a very basic question : is SendMessage or SendMessageTimout thread safe ?
SendMessage :
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644950(v=vs.85).aspx
SendMessageTimout
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644952(v=vs.85).aspx
Related:
Sending message from working non-gui thread to the main window
SendMessage and SendMessageTimeout are blocking functions: They pause the sender until the receiver has processed the message and returned. So there is no concurrent access to anything, hence the operation is thread-safe.

Make parent thread wait till child thread finishes in VC

According to MSDN:
The WaitForSingleObject function can wait for the following objects:
Change notification
Console input
Event
Memory resource notification
Mutex
Process
Semaphore
Thread
Waitable timer
Then we can use WaitForSingleObject to make the parent-thread wait for child ones.
int main()
{
HANDLE h_child_thread = CreateThread(0,0, child, 0,0,0); //create a thread in VC
WaitForSingleObject(h_child_thread, INFINITE); //So, parent-thread will wait
return 0;
}
Question
Is there any other way to make parent-thread wait for child ones in VC or Windows?
I don't quite understand the usage of WaitForSingleObject here, does it mean that the thread's handle will be available when the thread terminates?
You can establish communication between threads in multiple ways and the terminating thread may somehow signal its waiting thread. It could be as simple as writing some special value to a shared memory location that the waiting thread can check. But this won't guarantee that the terminating thread has terminated when the waiting thread sees the special value (ordering/race conditions) or that the terminating thread terminates shortly after that (it can just hang or block on something) and it won't guarantee that the special value gets ever set before the terminating thread actually terminates (the thread can crash). WaitForSingleObject (and its companion WaitForMultipleObjects) is a sure way to know of a thread termination when it occurs. Just use it.
The handle will still be available in the sense that its value won't be gone. But it is practically useless after the thread has terminated, except you need this handle to get the thread exit code. And you still need to close the handle in the end. That is unless you're OK with handle/memory leaks.
for the first queation - yes. The method commonly used here is "Join". the usage is language dependant.
In .NET C++ you can use the Thread's Join method. this is from the msdn:
Thread* newThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(0, Test::Work));
newThread->Start();
if(newThread->Join(waitTime + waitTime))
{
Console::WriteLine(S"New thread terminated.");
}
else
{
Console::WriteLine(S"Join timed out.");
}
Secondly, the thread is terminated when when you are signaled with "WaitForSingleObject" but the handle is still valid (for a terminated thread). So you still need to explicitly close the handle with CloseHandle.

Win32: Get message notification of other application's close/exit

My application needs to monitor all other running applications on the system. Is there some way I could get notified on exit of every application exe?
The methods I could find:
1) Use PSAPI functions to get the list of running exes at frequent intervals. At each poll compare with the previous list to find which application/process has exited.
Disadvantage: Requires constant polling, will take CPU time.
2) Set a global hook for WM_CLOSE message: Using this I would be able to get a notification when any application gets closed through the close button on the title bar
Disadvantage:
(-)Not all the applications are generating a WM_CLOSE message(Ex: Total Video Player Exe)
(-)If the application was closed through the "Exit" menu or button (e.g. File->Exit) , I can't trap that message
Is there any other better way that I missed? Please advise.
Get a list of PIDs using PSAPI.
Then get a handle on each process using OpenProcess().
Use WaitForMultipleObjects() to be signalled when one of the processes exits.
You could try the RegisterShellHookWindow() API and filter for HSHELL_WINDOWCREATED and HSHELL_WINDOWDESTROYED messages.
Of course, that will only get you notified about applications that have a window.
I recently ran into this problem and found a solution so wanted to share with you all. It all correct the way we should obtain handle to the process. Instead of WaitForSingleOBject though, I would recommend to use RegisterWaitForSingle object function. With this function you are giving a callback function and whenever the process exits, your callback function will be called. This is better than calling WaitForSingleObject in a thread. Calling WaitForSingleObject in your code by itself will cause your code to wait until the process exits. Here is an example of how to call it:
RegisterWaitForSingleObject(&waitHandle, processHandle, ProcessTerminatedCallback, param, INFINITE, WT_EXECUTEONLYONCE);
Where:
[out]waitHandle - new handle created for you. Please note that you cannot use this handle to call CloseHandle, but you can wait on it, if you want to.
[in] processHandle - handle to the process that you are supposed to obtain yourself
[in] ProcessTerminatedCallback - the callback function that will be called when the process exits
[in] param - LPVOID parameter that will be passed to the callback
[in] INFINITE - either wait infinitely or for a specified time, look up MSDN for more info
[in] WM_EXECUTEONLYONCE - will call the callback function only once. look up MSDN for more info
> Is there any other better way that I missed?
Yes, plenty. See on Win32 group (system notifications, without any hook)

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