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I am trying to get a list of all processes which are of the type "app" (as opposed to "Background Process" or "Windows Process").

"App" type

Unfortunately, although I know that...

var processList = Process.GetProcesses();

will get me a list of all processes running on the system, I am at a loss for how to get the 'type' of the process. 'Process' does have a method 'GetType', but it doesn't seem to refer to the "type" that I'm referring to, and that TaskManager refers to in the above image.

Does anyone know how I can get this value that Task Manager refers to as "type" into a variable for a given process?

Note: C#.

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    I don't know for sure the logic Windows 8 Task Manager uses to categorize processes. You'd probably have to ask Raymond Chen. :) But I suspect that it's looking at whether the process has at least one UI window. You won't get that from the Process class, but you can correlate information about windows that are present and the processes that own them. Commented Nov 23, 2014 at 8:20
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    Maybe that type bears on the process' MainWindowHandle property; not sure of proper using of the Refresh method. In any case: a process has a main window associated with it only if the process has a graphical interface, otherwise the MainWindowHandle value is zero. Commented Nov 23, 2014 at 20:15

2 Answers 2

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I couldn't find the exact answer, but I found what helps me. You need to use the MainWindowHandle property of class Process.

var processes = Process.GetProcesses().Where(pr => pr.MainWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero); foreach (Process proc in processes) Console.WriteLine(proc.ProcessName);

Warning

If you try to get proc.MainModule.FileName you may see the Win32Exception exception. To avoid this issue I compile my project as x64 (your project -> properties -> Build -> Platform target -> x64).

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Meet the same question, and find an answer in the follow link:https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20171219-00/?p=97606

  • If the process has a visible window, then Task Manager calls it an “App”.
  • If the process is marked as critical, then Task Manager calls it a “Windows Process”.
  • Otherwise, Task Manager calls it a “Background Process”.
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