WPF Single Instance Best Practices

There are Several choices,

Mutex
Process manager
Named Semaphore
Use a listener socket

Mutex

Mutex myMutex ;

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
    bool aIsNewInstance = false;
    myMutex = new Mutex(true, "MyWPFApplication", out aIsNewInstance);  
    if (!aIsNewInstance)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Already an instance is running...");
        App.Current.Shutdown();  
    }
}

Process manager

private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
    Process proc = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
    int count = Process.GetProcesses().Where(p=> 
        p.ProcessName == proc.ProcessName).Count();

    if (count > 1)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Already an instance is running...");
        App.Current.Shutdown(); 
    }
}

Use a listener socket

One way to signal another application is to open a Tcp connection to it. Create a socket, bind to a port, and listen on a background thread for connections. If this succeeds, run normally. If not, make a connection to that port, which signals the other instance that a second application launch attempt has been made. The original instance can then bring its main window to the front, if appropriate.

“Security” software / firewalls might be an issue.

Single Instance Application C#.Net along with Win32

I wanted to have a bit better user experience - if another instance is already running let's activate it rather than showing an error about the second instance. Here is my implementation.

I use named Mutex for making sure that only one instance is running and named EventWaitHandle to pass notification from one instance to another.

App.xaml.cs:

/// <summary>Interaction logic for App.xaml</summary>
public partial class App
{
    #region Constants and Fields

    /// <summary>The event mutex name.</summary>
    private const string UniqueEventName = "{GUID}";

    /// <summary>The unique mutex name.</summary>
    private const string UniqueMutexName = "{GUID}";

    /// <summary>The event wait handle.</summary>
    private EventWaitHandle eventWaitHandle;

    /// <summary>The mutex.</summary>
    private Mutex mutex;

    #endregion

    #region Methods

    /// <summary>The app on startup.</summary>
    /// <param name="sender">The sender.</param>
    /// <param name="e">The e.</param>
    private void AppOnStartup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
    {
        bool isOwned;
        this.mutex = new Mutex(true, UniqueMutexName, out isOwned);
        this.eventWaitHandle = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.AutoReset, UniqueEventName);

        // So, R# would not give a warning that this variable is not used.
        GC.KeepAlive(this.mutex);

        if (isOwned)
        {
            // Spawn a thread which will be waiting for our event
            var thread = new Thread(
                () =>
                {
                    while (this.eventWaitHandle.WaitOne())
                    {
                        Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
                            (Action)(() => ((MainWindow)Current.MainWindow).BringToForeground()));
                    }
                });

            // It is important mark it as background otherwise it will prevent app from exiting.
            thread.IsBackground = true;

            thread.Start();
            return;
        }

        // Notify other instance so it could bring itself to foreground.
        this.eventWaitHandle.Set();

        // Terminate this instance.
        this.Shutdown();
    }

    #endregion
}

And BringToForeground in MainWindow.cs:

    /// <summary>Brings main window to foreground.</summary>
    public void BringToForeground()
    {
        if (this.WindowState == WindowState.Minimized || this.Visibility == Visibility.Hidden)
        {
            this.Show();
            this.WindowState = WindowState.Normal;
        }

        // According to some sources these steps gurantee that an app will be brought to foreground.
        this.Activate();
        this.Topmost = true;
        this.Topmost = false;
        this.Focus();
    }

And add Startup="AppOnStartup" (thanks vhanla!):

<Application x:Class="MyClass.App"  
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"   
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             Startup="AppOnStartup">
    <Application.Resources>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

Works for me :)

For WPF just use:

public partial class App : Application
{
    private static Mutex _mutex = null;

    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
    {
        const string appName = "MyAppName";
        bool createdNew;

        _mutex = new Mutex(true, appName, out createdNew);

        if (!createdNew)
        {
            //app is already running! Exiting the application  
            Application.Current.Shutdown();
        }

        base.OnStartup(e);
    }          
}

1) It looks like a standard Dispose implementation to me. It is not really necessary (see point 6) but it does not do any harm. (Cleanup on closing it's a bit like cleaning the house before burning it down, IMHO, but opinions on the matter differs..)

Anyway, why not using "Dispose" as the name of the cleanup method, even if it does not get called directly? You could have called it "Cleanup", but remember you also write code for humans, and Dispose looks familiar and anyone on .NET understands what is it for. So, go for "Dispose".

2) I have always seen m_Mutex = new Mutex(false, mutexName); I think it's more a convention that a technical advantage, however.

3) From MSDN:

If the message is successfully registered, the return value is a message identifier in the range 0xC000 through 0xFFFF.

So I would not worry. Usually, for this class of functions, UInt is not used for "it does not fit in Int, let's use UInt so we have something more" but to clarify a contract "function never returns a negative value".

4) I would avoid calling it if you will shutdown, same reason as #1

5) There are a couple of ways of doing it. The easiest way in Win32 is simply to have the second instance make the call to SetForegroundWindow (Look here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2009/02/20/9435239.aspx); however, I don't know if there is an equivalent WPF functionality or if you need to PInvoke it.

For example... what happens if my application crashes between OnStartup and OnExit?

It's OK: when a process terminates, all handles owned by the process are released; the mutex is released as well.

In short, my recommendations:

I would used an approach based on named synchronization objects: it is the more established on the windows platform(s). (Be careful when considering a multi-user system, like terminal server! Name the synchronization object as a combination of, maybe, user name/SID and application name)
Use the Windows API to raise the previous instance (see my link at point #5), or the WPF equivalent.
You probably do not have to worry about crashes (kernel will decrease the ref counter for the kernel object for you; do a little test anyway), BUT If I may suggest an improvement: what if your first application instance does not crash but hangs? (Happens with Firefox.. I'm sure it happened to you too! No window, ff process, you cannot open a new one). In that case it may be good to combine another technique or two, to a) test if the application/window responds; b) find the hung instance and terminate it

For example, you can use your technique (trying to send/post a message to the window - if does not answer back it is stuck), plus MSK technique, to find and terminate the old process. Then start normally.

to prevent a second instance (and signal the existing),

using EventWaitHandle (since we are talking about an event),
using Task,
no Mutex code required,
no TCP,
no Pinvokes,
no GarbageCollection stuff,
thread save
simple

it could be done like this (this for an WPF app (see ref to App()), but works on WinForms as well):

public partial class App : Application
{
    public App()
    {
        // initiate it. Call it first.
        preventSecond();
    }

    private const string UniqueEventName = "{GENERATE-YOUR-OWN-GUID}";

    private void preventSecond()
    {
        try
        {
            EventWaitHandle.OpenExisting(UniqueEventName); // check if it exists
            this.Shutdown();
        }
        catch (WaitHandleCannotBeOpenedException)
        {
            new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.AutoReset, UniqueEventName); // register
        }
    }
}

Second version: above plus signaling the other instance to show the window (change the MainWindow part for WinForms):

public partial class App : Application
{
    public App()
    {
        // initiate it. Call it first.
        //preventSecond();
        SingleInstanceWatcher();
    }

    private const string UniqueEventName = "{GENERATE-YOUR-OWN-GUID}";
    private EventWaitHandle eventWaitHandle;

    /// <summary>prevent a second instance and signal it to bring its mainwindow to foreground</summary>
    /// <seealso cref="https://stackoverflow.com/a/23730146/1644202"/>
    private void SingleInstanceWatcher()
    {
        // check if it is already open.
        try
        {
            // try to open it - if another instance is running, it will exist , if not it will throw
            this.eventWaitHandle = EventWaitHandle.OpenExisting(UniqueEventName);

            // Notify other instance so it could bring itself to foreground.
            this.eventWaitHandle.Set();

            // Terminate this instance.
            this.Shutdown();
        }
        catch (WaitHandleCannotBeOpenedException)
        {
            // listen to a new event (this app instance will be the new "master")
            this.eventWaitHandle = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.AutoReset, UniqueEventName);
        }

        // if this instance gets the signal to show the main window
        new Task(() =>
        {
            while (this.eventWaitHandle.WaitOne())
            {
                Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)(() =>
                {
                    // could be set or removed anytime
                    if (!Current.MainWindow.Equals(null))
                    {
                        var mw = Current.MainWindow;

                        if (mw.WindowState == WindowState.Minimized || mw.Visibility != Visibility.Visible)
                        {
                            mw.Show();
                            mw.WindowState = WindowState.Normal;
                        }

                        // According to some sources these steps are required to be sure it went to foreground.
                        mw.Activate();
                        mw.Topmost = true;
                        mw.Topmost = false;
                        mw.Focus();
                    }
                }));
            }
        })
        .Start();
    }
}

This code as a drop in class, will be @ Selfcontained-C-Sharp-WPF-compatible-utility-classes / Utils.SingleInstance.cs

WPF Single Instance Best Practices

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