C Sharp – Process.Start() in C# with examples

C Sharp – There are many times a situation has occurs (such as user want to see document file, see any webpage, run any external program, etc.) where the user wants to launch another .exe file or Application in C# programming, to resolve this problem, C# provides an efficient way through which we can do it. C# has a namespace namely System. Diagnostics have a class named Process which plays an important role to launch another .exe or file.

For upon |Process class has a method ‘Start()’ through which we can launch another application in C# programming.  Process class access local or remote process and enables to the user to start or stop local system process that is we can say that process class helps to starting, stopping, controlling and monitoring external application. Process component provides to access the process, which is running in the system. Using the Process component we can obtain the list of the running processes in the system and we can also start the new process in the system.

Here I am giving a console application example to open a directory with the help of

Process.Start() method. Let’s see the brief demonstration.

Example:

namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           // open the new process of opening directory
           Process.Start(@”c:\”);

       }
   }
}

 

This example sends the C:\ directory name to the operating system, which will

result in explorer opening the folder on your system or desktop.

 

C Sharp  – Now in the same manner you can open a text files, word file,s and much more.

Example: Open .txt and .docx file

To open these file write following code.

namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
      class Program
        {
         static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           // process one opening for ms-word file
           Process.Start(@”C:\Users\Sachindra\Desktop\TestFile.docx”);
           // waiting for 1 second to create second process
           Thread.Sleep(1000);
           // process two opening for txt file
           Process.Start(@”C:\Users\Sachindra\Desktop\TestTextFile.txt”);

           }
    }
 }

Example: Open any webpage or Launch URL’S

C Sharp  – You can open any webpage through the Process.Start() method by entering URL of a webpage within the Start() method as an argument as well as you can also search any content or topic via the search engine such as Google, Yahoo, etc. Let’s see a brief example of it.

Search any content through google search engine write the following code:

using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           // create method and pass content within it and search it in google
           SearchContentOnGoogle(“Trigger in sql server mindstick”);
       }
       public staticvoidSearchContentOnGoogle(stringcontent)
       {
           //enter the search engine url
           Process.Start(“http://google.com/search?q=”+content);
       }
   }

}

Output:

Now launch any web page URL such as:

using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           // Launch any other url or web page
           Process.Start(“http://mindstick.com”);
       }

   }

}

Output:

Example: Launch Legacy Program or .exe file

You can launch or run any executable program through the process component. Here I am taking an old console application and run it with help of ProcessStartInfo class which has many properties.

namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           // Create object of ProcessStartInfo class
           ProcessStartInfo stinfo= new ProcessStartInfo();
           // Assign file name
           stinfo.FileName= @”C:\Users\Sachindra\Desktop\Logic.exe”;
           // start the process without creating new window default is false
           stinfo.CreateNoWindow= true;
           // true to use the shell when starting the process; otherwise, the process is created directly from the executable file
           stinfo.UseShellExecute= true;

           // Creating Process class object to start process
           Process myProcess= Process.Start(stinfo);
           // start the process
           myProcess.Start();

       }

   }

}

 

Output:

 

Example: Start Process as Administrator Permision

To run any process as administrator rights writes the following code.

namespace ConsoleProcessTest
{
   class Program
   {
       static voidMain(string[] args)
       {
           try
           {
               // create process instance
               Process myprocess= newProcess();
               // set the file path which you want in process
                 myprocess.StartInfo.FileName= @”C:\Users\Sachindra\Desktop\Logic.exe”;
               // take the administrator permision to run process
               myprocess.StartInfo.Verb=”runas”;
               // start process
               myprocess.Start();
           }
           catch (Exception ex)
           {
               Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
               Console.ReadKey();
           }
       }

   }
}