How can I get a process handle by its name in C++?

Question

I'm trying to get the process handle of, say example.exe, so I can call TerminateProcess on it. How can I do this? Notice, it doesn't have a window so FindWindow won't work.

Answer 1

#include <cstdio>
#include <windows.h>
#include <tlhelp32.h>

int main( int, char *[] )
{
    PROCESSENTRY32 entry;
    entry.dwSize = sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);

    HANDLE snapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, NULL);

    if (Process32First(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE)
    {
        while (Process32Next(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE)
        {
            if (stricmp(entry.szExeFile, "target.exe") == 0)
            {  
                HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, entry.th32ProcessID);

                // Do stuff..

                CloseHandle(hProcess);
            }
        }
    }

    CloseHandle(snapshot);

    return 0;
}

Also, if you'd like to use PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS in OpenProcess, you could try this:

#include <cstdio>
#include <windows.h>
#include <tlhelp32.h>

void EnableDebugPriv()
{
    HANDLE hToken;
    LUID luid;
    TOKEN_PRIVILEGES tkp;

    OpenProcessToken(GetCurrentProcess(), TOKEN_ADJUST_PRIVILEGES | TOKEN_QUERY, &hToken);

    LookupPrivilegeValue(NULL, SE_DEBUG_NAME, &luid);

    tkp.PrivilegeCount = 1;
    tkp.Privileges[0].Luid = luid;
    tkp.Privileges[0].Attributes = SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED;

    AdjustTokenPrivileges(hToken, false, &tkp, sizeof(tkp), NULL, NULL);

    CloseHandle(hToken); 
}

int main( int, char *[] )
{
    EnableDebugPriv();

    PROCESSENTRY32 entry;
    entry.dwSize = sizeof(PROCESSENTRY32);

    HANDLE snapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, NULL);

    if (Process32First(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE)
    {
        while (Process32Next(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE)
        {
            if (stricmp(entry.szExeFile, "target.exe") == 0)
            {  
                HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, entry.th32ProcessID);

                // Do stuff..

                CloseHandle(hProcess);
            }
        }
    }

    CloseHandle(snapshot);

    return 0;
}