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C#: Ensure User only Runs One Copy of a Program

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Using a mutex, you can ensure that multiple users can run a program, but each one can run only one copy of the program.

This can come in handy when users are logging into a Citrix server or other shared server, and you don't want to limit the application to running only once.

The following code illustrates this concept:

01.using System;
02.using System.Security.Principal;
03.using System.Threading;
04.using System.Windows.Forms;
05. 
06.namespace WindowsFormsApplication2
07.{
08.    static class  Program
09.    {
10.        [STAThread]
11.        static void  Main()
12.        {
13.            bool ok;
14.            string strMyAppName = "ObscureAppName";
15.            string strMutex = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name.ToString();
16.            strMutex = strMutex.Split('\\')[1]; 
17.            strMutex += strMyAppName;
18.            Mutex m = new  Mutex(true, strMutex, out   ok);
19.            if (!ok)
20.            {
21.                MessageBox.Show("Already running");
22.                Application.Exit();
23.            }
24.            if (ok)
25.            {
26.                Application.Run(new Form1());
27.                GC.KeepAlive(m);                // important!
28.            }
29.        }
30.    }
31.}

This is an extension of the work previously done by Michael A. Covington here: http://www.ai.uga.edu/mc/SingleInstance.html