How can I tell if another instance of my program is already running?

Question

How do i tell if one instance of my program is running? I thought I could do this with a data file but it would just be messy :(

I want to do this as I only want 1 instance to ever be open at one point.

Answer 1

You can create a Semaphore and stop execution (put the code into your *.dpr file) and bring you running application to the screen.

var
  Semafor: THandle;

begin
  { Don't start twice ... if already running bring this instance to front }
  Semafor := CreateSemaphore(nil, 0, 1, 'MY_APPLICATION_IS_RUNNING');
  if ((Semafor <> 0) and { application is already running }
     (GetLastError = ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS)) then 
  begin
    RestoreWindow('TMyApplication');
    CloseHandle(Semafor);
    Halt;
  end;

  Application.CreateForm(....);    
  Application.Initialize;
  Application.Run;
  CloseHandle(Semafor);
end;

EDIT (added the RestoreWindow method):

The aFormName is the name of your main form class in your application.

procedure RestoreWindow(aFormName: string);
var
  Wnd,
  App: HWND;    
begin
  Wnd := FindWindow(PChar(aFormName), nil);
  if (Wnd <> 0) then 
  begin { Set Window to foreground }
    App := GetWindowLong(Wnd, GWL_HWNDPARENT);
    if IsIconic(App) then 
      ShowWindow(App, SW_RESTORE);

    SetForegroundwindow(App);
  end;
end;