CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net
Alex
Alex

Reputation: 77329

Guaranteed way to force application running continuously (overriding taskkill, task manager etc.)

I have a C# security/monitoring application that I need to have running no matter what. However, I can not remove privileges or restrict access to parts of the OS (Windows).

I thought of having a protection service running which monitors continuously if an application is running, and starts it back up when the application is killed somehow, while the application monitors the protection service and starts the service if the service is killed. To my knowledge you can't simultaneously kill multiple processes at the same time.

Any better idea to guarantee that an application is always running?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1299

Answers (3)

Eric Lippert
Eric Lippert

Reputation: 660159

The Windows team gets requests like this all the time:

"I want to make a process that can never be killed".

"Well I want to make a tool that can kill any process".

One of those two people is going to be disappointed.

"I want to make a window that is always on top of all other windows no matter what"

"I also want to make a window that is always on top of all other windows no matter what"

One of those two people is going to be disappointed.

"I want to make a process that does not show up in any list of processes no matter how cleverly the listing program is trying to find me"

"I want to make a program that lists all processes, no matter how cleverly the process is trying to hide".

One of those two people is going to be disappointed.

And so on.

I think you're going to be one of the disappointed people.

Upvotes: 10

1800 INFORMATION
1800 INFORMATION

Reputation: 135295

I would write your program as a windows service - configure it to run automatically on startup, and to restart automatically if it is terminated unexpectedly. You cannot do any better than this since the user must be allowed to control the computer.

Upvotes: 1

Michael
Michael

Reputation: 55415

There is no guarantee - if the user has enough privilege it can terminate your program or any other monitoring code you have running that will restart your application.

Imagine if this were true - every piece of spyware on the planet would be using it.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions