How can I detect if a program is started?

[jmDesktop]

I want to create my C# program to run in the background and detect
when a program starts. In an interactive program, I know I can
iterate through an array of Processes to find my process if I click a
button, for example. But, I cannot find the best way to run my C#
program in the background waiting for a program to start

The program just needs to stay in the background and when someone say
opens notepad, I can show a messagebox saying "You opened notepad."

All I saw was a gigantic set of code with hooks. I don't know if
that's the best way to do it. My purpose behind this is to keep
someone from running a third party program more than one time because
it is frying everything. One thought was to just start the program
from my c# program, but I didn't like it. Someone could always bypass
it and just start the program directly.

Thank you for any help.

 

[Caio Proiete [MCT]]

Hello jmDesktop,

The most ellegant way (and probably the only really reliable) would be with
hooks...

Take a look at EasyHook at CodePlex... It could be a good start:
http://www.codeplex.com/easyhook

Cheers,
Caio Proiete