How Can I Get a Process Handle by Name in C ?

Getting Process Handle by Name in C

To obtain the handle of a process based on its process name, such as "example.exe," we can utilize the following approach in C .

The first step is to create a snapshot of all running processes using the CreateToolhelp32Snapshot function:

HANDLE snapshot = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0);

Next, we need to iterate through the processes in the snapshot to find the one with the specified name:

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

if (Process32First(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE) {
  while (Process32Next(snapshot, &entry) == TRUE) {
    if (stricmp(entry.szExeFile, "target.exe") == 0) {
      // Found the process

With the process information in hand, we can use the OpenProcess function to obtain its handle:

HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, entry.th32ProcessID);

Note: To use the PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS privilege, you may need to enable the debug privilege, as shown in the alternative code snippet provided in the question's answer.

EnableDebugPriv();

Once you have the process handle, you can perform various operations on it, including terminating the process using TerminateProcess.

TerminateProcess(hProcess, 0);

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