Alok,

If you really want the application to start at system startup, before you
log on, then I think a windows service is the way to go.  Why don't you want
to do that?  You could create a UI that communicates with the service (via
remoting) and start that UI when you log on.

Joris

   Try to play around with this code:

public static void Main()
{
    Process pr = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
    string appName = pr.ProcessName;
    Process[] runningProcesses = Process.GetProcessesByName(appName);

    // at this point we either have one or two processes in the array;
    // if one, then we just started, if two, this is the second instance
    // and we need to activate the first one and exit

    if(runningProcesses.Length == 1)
        Application.Run(new MainWindow());
    else
    {
        IntPtr hwnd = IntPtr.Zero;

        if(!runningProcesses[0].MainWindowHandle.Equals(hwnd))
            handle = runningProcesses[0].MainWindowHandle;
        else if(!runningProcesses[1].MainWindowHandle.Equals(hwnd))
            handle = runningProcesses[1].MainWindowHandle;

        Win32.ShowWindowAsync(hwnd, 2); // SW_MINIMIZE
        Win32.ShowWindowAsync(hwnd, 9); // SW_RESTORE
    }
}

Alok,

Usually in order to find out if an instance is already running programmer
use mutexes. This question has been asked a lot. Try to google for an
answer; you'll find sulution and code snippets how to do that.

You could import the VB 2005 namespaces and use the built-in functionality.
I have an article on the topic at http://devauthority.com/blogs/jwooley/archive/2005/07/28/318.aspx.
It is in VB, but the download includes a number of links to samples in VB
and C#.

Jim Wooley
http://devauthority.com/blogs/jwooley/default.aspx

Hi Alok,

We offer a .NET component FREE for non-commercial use which will do this for
you:

http://www.mini-tools.com/goto/comm

Yes.  Try this:

    SetForegroundWindow( hWnd );
    SetActiveWindow( hWnd );

You will need these definitions:

    using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static private extern bool SetForegroundWindow( IntPtr hWnd );
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static private extern IntPtr SetActiveWindow(IntPtr hWnd);