PID not unique?

[JohnOne]

I was asking about scite, as It spawns a new instance of the script other than the one you run if #RequireAdmin is used.

Wernt sure if this could have been affecting it.

But there is definately something strange going on.

[MrPPP]

I'm sorry. I did not understand what you meant by sorting by image. And I wasn't clear enough. The first time I run the script there is no iexplorer.exe running ( I checked, like you said, with taskmanager). Then, I run the script. Run(@ProgramFilesDir&"\internet explorer\iexplore.exe "&$sURL, "",@SW_SHOW) will open 1 IE window. But 2 iexplorer.exe processes are opened. That is why you see two iexplorer.exe processes in the list that is returned by the script. Now, I do not know why it opens two iexplorer.exe processes. I guess there is one process for every tab or window and one to collect them all together. But I don't know why that changes the PID.

I'll now run your version of the script and post the results. I'll first close my browser to have the least amount of interference (even if I dont use IE normally).

See you in 5;)

[MrPPP]

Same result:

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Pid as returned by Run: 4180

[System Process] 0
ACEngSvr.exe 2668
ACMON.exe 2252
alg.exe 3572
ATI2EVXX.EXE 1228
ATI2EVXX.EXE 1752
ATKOSD.exe 2672
AutoIt3.exe 4312
ccc.exe 2416
CLCapSvc.exe 300
CLMLServer.exe 460
CLMLService.exe 496
CLSched.exe 2124
CSRSS.EXE 984
ctfmon.exe 3248
DMedia.exe 1888
Dot1XCfg.exe 2568
ehmsas.exe 1472
ehtray.exe 1148
EOUWiz.exe 3208
EvtEng.exe 1700
Explorer.EXE 356
gnotify.exe 516
GoogleUpdate.exe 3340
HControl.exe 612
iexplore.exe 4180
iexplore.exe 4628
iFrmewrk.exe 3116
JQS.EXE 568
LSASS.EXE 1072
MOM.exe 3528
MsMpEng.exe 1484
msseces.exe 3160
NOTEPAD.EXE 4556
PnkBstrA.exe 1416
RegSrvc.exe 1452
RTHDCPL.EXE 3428
S24EvMon.exe 1824
SciTE.exe 5172
services.exe 1060
Skype.exe 2368
skypePM.exe 3440
smss.exe 924
spoolsv.exe 1140
svchost.exe 1260
svchost.exe 1340
svchost.exe 1636
svchost.exe 1856
svchost.exe 1932
svchost.exe 1996
svchost.exe 204
svchost.exe 456
SynTPEnh.exe 3052
System 4
wcourier.exe 4000
winlogon.exe 1016
wmiapsrv.exe 2084
wuauclt.exe 1480
ZCfgSvc.exe 2296

expandcollapse popup

[System Process] 0
ACEngSvr.exe 2668
ACMON.exe 2252
alg.exe 3572
ATI2EVXX.EXE 1228
ATI2EVXX.EXE 1752
ATKOSD.exe 2672
AutoIt3.exe 4980
ccc.exe 2416
CLCapSvc.exe 300
CLMLServer.exe 460
CLMLService.exe 496
CLSched.exe 2124
CSRSS.EXE 984
ctfmon.exe 3248
DMedia.exe 1888
Dot1XCfg.exe 2568
ehmsas.exe 1472
ehtray.exe 1148
EOUWiz.exe 3208
EvtEng.exe 1700
Explorer.EXE 356
gnotify.exe 516
GoogleUpdate.exe 3340
HControl.exe 612
iexplore.exe 4180
iexplore.exe 4628
iexplore.exe 5076
iFrmewrk.exe 3116
JQS.EXE 568
LSASS.EXE 1072
MOM.exe 3528
MsMpEng.exe 1484
msseces.exe 3160
NOTEPAD.EXE 4556
NOTEPAD.EXE 5048
PnkBstrA.exe 1416
RegSrvc.exe 1452
RTHDCPL.EXE 3428
S24EvMon.exe 1824
SciTE.exe 5172
services.exe 1060
Skype.exe 2368
skypePM.exe 3440
smss.exe 924
spoolsv.exe 1140
svchost.exe 1260
svchost.exe 1340
svchost.exe 1636
svchost.exe 1856
svchost.exe 1932
svchost.exe 1996
svchost.exe 204
svchost.exe 456
SynTPEnh.exe 3052
System 4
wcourier.exe 4000
winlogon.exe 1016
wmiapsrv.exe 2084
wuauclt.exe 1480
ZCfgSvc.exe 2296

If you have any clue why this happens or how we could find some more hints as to find out why/how it happens... I'm very interested...

Greetings!

[JohnOne]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but those PIDs are different, all 3 of them, an you have the PID of the one you started.

ps it is normal for 2 processes to show when running IE, (well at least it has been in my experience.

[MrPPP]

Btw, If I do:

sleep ( 1000 )
$hIE1 = WinGetHandle ( "[TITLE:Google; INSTANCE:1]" )
$hIE2 = WinGetHandle ( "[TITLE:Google; INSTANCE:2]" )

WinSetState ( $hIE1, "", @SW_MINIMIZE ) ; just to make sure I have the good windows. 
sleep ( 2000 )
WinSetState ( $hIE2, "", @SW_MINIMIZE )

$pid1 = WInGetProcess ( $hIE1 )
$pid2 = WInGetProcess ( $hIE2 )

MsgBox ( 0, "1", $hIE1&" "&$pid1 )
MsgBox ( 0, "2", $hIE2&" "&$pid2 )

Both windows return 4180 as PID (and have different HWND) (no idea if that helps).

Greetz!

Edited January 13, 2011 by MrPPP

[JohnOne]

PsaltDS said in post that its normal to have multiplr windows with the same PID.

And as I recall, you were after the windows handle, were you not? which you have gotten.

This thread is confusing me I need a cup of tea

[Ascend4nt]

This is all quite amusing.

MrPPP, I've seen this happen myself - you run a few instances of Internet Explorer, they shows up in Task Manager, but the Windows themselves get attached to only a single process. This is more or less causing one of the processes to be like a 'server' which handles the window messages, while the other processes are there for the internal processing (I guess).

In any case, the simplest method here is to run the process using @SW_HIDE, then get a WinList with a "[CLASS:IEFrame]", find the one window that is hidden and identify that as the one you created.

Here's some code (you may have to adjust the first sleep..):

ConsoleWrite("Process ID:"&Run(@ProgramFilesDir & "\internet explorer\iexplore.exe")&@LF)
ConsoleWrite("Process ID:"&Run(@ProgramFilesDir & "\internet explorer\iexplore.exe",'',@SW_HIDE)&@LF)
ProcessWait("iexplore.exe")
WinWait("[CLASS:IEFrame]")
; For some reason, even with the 'Waits' above, it still catches the wrong window without a sleep
Sleep(500)
$hWnd=0
While 1
    $aWinList=WinList("[CLASS:IEFrame]")
    For $i=1 To $aWinList[0][0]
        If BitAND(WinGetState($aWinList[$i][1]),2)=0 Then
            $hWnd=$aWinList[$i][1]
            ExitLoop 2
        EndIf
    Next
    Sleep(100)
WEnd
If $hWnd<>0 Then
    WinSetState($hWnd,'',@SW_SHOW)
    ConsoleWrite("Window found, handle:"&$hWnd&", PID #:"&WinGetProcess($hWnd)&@LF)
EndIf

[bo8ster]

I had a cup of coffee so now I am good.

1. PIDs do not change while a process is instantiated, I don't know why you proceed to argue the point when you are wrong.

2. Running IE 7 on XP only runs only one process for me. I have seen java apps require more that one process to run however one process spawned the second, thus once process has overall control of the rest, they are not acting completely independently. There are many examples of this however I have never seen IE do this, this is not say IE does not do this, IE is stupid and does stupid stuff sometimes.

Edit: @Ascend4nt, this is true and in the case it should not matter which process is referenced as it is still the same "program" even though it is broken into different process. I would use that ever the autoit info tool gave me. I have not put this into practice however I assume this to be true.

3. Post #23 is not the same result as what was posted in post #17. Post 23 had 3 processes running after the first run while post 17 had two processes running after the first run. Not the same result. If the code is the same (which I can only assume it is) then the only other possibility is the environment it is running on.

4. Re Post# 25, as stated before Window Handles are very different from PIDs. If that code is working (and $hIE2 is being assigned with a valid address that is in WinList) then it means there is more that one instance of IE running, and I know this because I know how the function (WinGetHandle) works under the hood. If you were to put error checking and print out all the results you would fund a logic error, it may execute however it does not mean it is correct.

5. I have re-done the code, give this a try.

expandcollapse popup

#include <Array.au3>

If (ProcessExists("iexplore.exe") <> 0) Then
    ConsoleWrite("iexplore.exe process is open, killing now ...." &@CRLF)
    Run("taskkill /F /IM iexplore.exe")
    if (ProcessWaitClose("iexplore.exe", 10) <> 1) Then
        ConsoleWriteError("iexplore.exe could not be killed, ending program")
        Exit (1)
    EndIf
EndIf

$sURL = "www.google.nl"
Local Const $pid = Run(@ProgramFilesDir & "\internet explorer\iexplore.exe " & $sURL, "", @SW_SHOW) ; ensures it cannot be change once set
ConsoleWrite($pid & @CRLF) ; print out to ensure your search is correct.
;~ Run("notepad.exe") ; why is this where?
Sleep(1000)

;~ Global $hOut = WinGetTitle("Naamloos")

ConsoleWrite("Pid as returned by Run: " & $pid & @CRLF)
;~ ControlSend($hOut, "", "[CLASS:Edit; INSTANCE:1]", "Pid as returned by Run: " & $pid & "{ENTER}{ENTER}")

Local $aProcessList = ProcessList()

For $i = 1 To $aProcessList[0][0]
    If ($aProcessList[$i][0] == "iexplore.exe") Then
        ConsoleWrite($aProcessList[$i][0] & " " & $aProcessList[$i][1] & @CRLF)
    EndIf
;~     ControlSend($hOut, "", "[CLASS:Edit; INSTANCE:1]", $aProcessList[$i][0] & " " & $aProcessList[$i][1] & "{ENTER}")
Next

sleep ( 1000 )
Local $hIE1 = WinGetHandle ( "[TITLE:Google; INSTANCE:1]" )
Local $hIE2 = WinGetHandle ( "[TITLE:Google; INSTANCE:2]" )

WinSetState ( $hIE1, "", @SW_MINIMIZE ) ; just to make sure I have the good windows.
sleep ( 2000 )
WinSetState ( $hIE2, "", @SW_MINIMIZE )

$pid1 = WInGetProcess ( $hIE1 )
$pid2 = WInGetProcess ( $hIE2 )

ConsoleWrite ( "1: " & $hIE1&" "&$pid1 & @CRLF )
ConsoleWrite ( "2: "& $hIE2&" "&$pid2 & @CRLF)

6. Try this for for something different.

#include <IE.au3>

_IECreate("www.google.nl")

Local $aProcessList = ProcessList()

For $i = 1 To $aProcessList[0][0]
    If ($aProcessList[$i][0] == "iexplore.exe") Then
        ConsoleWrite($aProcessList[$i][0] & " " & $aProcessList[$i][1] & @CRLF)
    EndIf
;~     ControlSend($hOut, "", "[CLASS:Edit; INSTANCE:1]", $aProcessList[$i][0] & " " & $aProcessList[$i][1] & "{ENTER}")
Next

Edited January 12, 2011 by bo8ster

[MrPPP]

This is all quite amusing.

MrPPP, I've seen this happen myself - you run a few instances of Internet Explorer, they shows up in Task Manager, but the Windows themselves get attached to only a single process. This is more or less causing one of the processes to be like a 'server' which handles the window messages, while the other processes are there for the internal processing (I guess).

In any case, the simplest method here is to run the process using @SW_HIDE, then get a WinList with a "[CLASS:IEFrame]", find the one window that is hidden and identify that as the one you created.

Here's some code (you may have to adjust the first sleep..):

ConsoleWrite("Process ID:"&Run(@ProgramFilesDir & "\internet explorer\iexplore.exe")&@LF)
ConsoleWrite("Process ID:"&Run(@ProgramFilesDir & "\internet explorer\iexplore.exe",'',@SW_HIDE)&@LF)
ProcessWait("iexplore.exe")
WinWait("[CLASS:IEFrame]")
; For some reason, even with the 'Waits' above, it still catches the wrong window without a sleep
Sleep(500)
$hWnd=0
While 1
    $aWinList=WinList("[CLASS:IEFrame]")
    For $i=1 To $aWinList[0][0]
        If BitAND(WinGetState($aWinList[$i][1]),2)=0 Then
            $hWnd=$aWinList[$i][1]
            ExitLoop 2
        EndIf
    Next
    Sleep(100)
WEnd
If $hWnd<>0 Then
    WinSetState($hWnd,'',@SW_SHOW)
    ConsoleWrite("Window found, handle:"&$hWnd&", PID #:"&WinGetProcess($hWnd)&@LF)
EndIf

This might be a good solution. I'm sick today so I will try it a bit later when I'm feeling better. I'll get back to you if I got it.

Thanks!

[AGlassman]

Old thread, but very helpful. And still relevant.

I can confirm, that for IE11 on Win7, the PID you get back from a RUN of IE is NOT the PID associated with the new window that opens. Doesn't matter if IE is running already or not.

Ascend4nt's idea of opening the new IE window Hidden and then looking for the only Hidden IE Window is clever. I'll try a similar approach.