How to Run Another Application Within a Panel of My C# Program

How can I run another application within a panel of my C# program?

I don't know if this is still the recommended thing to use but the "Object Linking and Embedding" framework allows you to embed certain objects/controls directly into your application. This will probably only work for certain applications, I'm not sure if Notepad is one of them. For really simple things like notepad, you'll probably have an easier time just working with the text box controls provided by whatever medium you're using (e.g. WinForms).

Here's a link to OLE info to get started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_Linking_and_Embedding

C# open other program in form panel

For the C# application, you can load the application into the current AppDomain and treat it like a library. Add it to your project references for this. How you would initialize and put it into your panel would depend on how the referenced application is designed.

You might have to initialize the main form for that application yourself and set parent that way.

run another application within a C# program with his childs

you can use:

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern
        bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern
        bool ShowWindowAsync(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern
        bool IsIconic(IntPtr hWnd);

and then

            // bring it to the foreground
            if (IsIconic(proc.MainWindowHandle))
                ShowWindowAsync(proc.MainWindowHandle, SW_RESTORE);
            SetForegroundWindow(proc.MainWindowHandle);

How can I take over, another running application within a panel of my C# program?

Try this:

foreach (var process in Process.GetProcesses())
{
    if (process.ProcessName == "notepad")
    // or
    //if (process.MainWindowTitle == "Untitled - Notepad")
    {
        SetParent(process.MainWindowHandle, panel1.Handle);
    }
};

run a foreign exe inside a windows form app

You can do this by PInvoking SetParent():

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr hWndNewParent);

First you need to start the third party application within your application:

var clientApplication = Process.Start("PATH_TO_YOUR_EXECUTABLE");

then set its MainWindowHandle to your main window handle:

SetParent(clientApplication.MainWindowHandle, YourMainWindowOrAContainerControl.Handle);

How do I launch application one from another in C#?

You can use .NET's Process Class to start a process as other people described. Then the question is when to call.

In most cases, using either Form.Closing or Form.Closed event seems to be an easy choice.

However, if someone else can handle the event and can set CancelEventArgs.Cancel to true, this may not be the right place to do this. Also, Form.Closing and Form.Closed events will not be raised when Application.Exit() is called. I am not sure whether either of events will be raised if any unhandled exceptions occur. (Also, you have to decide whether you want to launch the second application in case of Application.Exit() or any unhandled exception).

If you really want to make sure the second application (App2) launches after the first application (App1) exited, you can play a trick:

1. Create a separate application (App0)
2. App0 launches App1
3. App0 waits for App1 to exit with Process.WaitExit()
4. App0 launches App2 and exits itself

The sample console app attached below shows a very simple case: my sample app launches the notepad first. Then, when the notepad exits, it launches mspaint and exits itself.

If you want to hide the console, you can simply set the 'Output Type' property from 'Console Application' to 'Windows Application' under 'Application' tab of Project Property.

Sample code:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace ProcessExitSample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {

                Process firstProc = new Process();
                firstProc.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
                firstProc.EnableRaisingEvents = true;

                firstProc.Start();

                firstProc.WaitForExit();

                //You may want to perform different actions depending on the exit code.
                Console.WriteLine("First process exited: " + firstProc.ExitCode);

                Process secondProc = new Process();
                secondProc.StartInfo.FileName = "mspaint.exe";
                secondProc.Start();                

            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("An error occurred!!!: " + ex.Message);
                return;
            }
        }
    }
}

Running exe inside WinForm Project Tab

You could use the SetParent api to set the parent of the executable's window. Add a panel to your TabControl and use the code below to assign the parent of the executable window to that of the panel.

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr hWndNewParent);

private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var process = new Process();
    process.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
    process.Start();
    SetParent(process.MainWindowHandle, panel1.Handle);
}

To remove the window from the panel, use the same code but set the parent handle as IntPtr.Zero

SetParent(process.MainWindowHandle, IntPtr.Zero);

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