Get PID from ShellExecute

Question

I am launching a process from ShellExecuteEx, and I really need to get the ProcessID (It's part of the requirement of this class).

Somehow all the important SHELLEXECUTEINFO returns null. So for example if I use this code:

exInfo.lpVerb = "open";
exInfo.lpFile = "C:\\Windows\\system32\\cmd.exe";
exInfo.nShow  = 5;

ShellExecuteExA(exInfo);

It launched CMD.exe. But now I need to get it's PID. exInfo.hwnd is returning 0, and exInfo.hProcess is returning null. Is this normal behaviour?

I don't really want to resort to using CreateProcess(), because my function should also be able to launch documents like "C:\doc1.docx". This is just a method, in which I cannot predict what is going to be launched (So I cannot know the window title/classname from beforehand, get the hWnd from there and then get the PID).

Could somebody kindly point out my mistake? Thanks.

Can you explain further on how to get the PID from ShellExecuteInfo because I am looking for a way myself. — Ganesh Kamath - 'Code Frenzy', Jan 17 '19 at 13:58
`DWORD PID = GetProcessId(exInfo.hProcess);` this is the one that I am currently using. Thank you. — Ganesh Kamath - 'Code Frenzy', Jan 17 '19 at 14:22

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 01 '11 at 13:10

2

You need to set a flag (SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS) in exInfo.fMask

answered Oct 01 '11 at 13:10

Luke

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Be aware that `ShellExecuteEx` can returns success without creating a process. (For example, if the handler is a single-instance app.) – Raymond Chen Oct 01 '11 at 14:33

Get PID from ShellExecute

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