Get Process ID of COM Server

Question

I'm doing some automation via a combination of windows message sending directly to HWNDs and calls to a COM server exposed by the automated application.

If there is more than one instance running, I need to be able to determine the process ID of the COM server so I can hit the same instance with the COM call as the one I'm sending windows messages to.

I can enumerate all the running COM servers with the running object table and get back monikers for all of them, but the COM objects themselves expose no methods I can use to get a window handle, thread ID, process ID, or anything of that sort.

Is there any way to figure out, based on a moniker or the actual binding COM object of the moniker, what the process ID of the COM server is?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you control (write code for) both the server and the client you can add a method to your COM interface that would return the process / thread ID or anything of this nature (e.g. server hostname if it is remote) on the server end. I second @Hans - unless you have access to the server implementation you may be out of luck by design.

Answer 2

I believe the kimgr CoGetServerPID function will give you the process-id of your COM server. However, it only works if the process-id is <65k.

You can also use GetWindowThreadProcessId if you already have the window handle (HWND).

There's also a 3 Ways to Get a COM Server Process ID blog post that might be worth taking a look at. Haven't tried it myself though.