What is a good pattern for using a Global Mutex in C#?

Question

The Mutex class is very misunderstood, and Global mutexes even more so.

What is good, safe pattern to use when creating Global mutexes?

One that will work

Answer 1

Neither Mutex nor WinApi CreateMutex() works for me.

An alternate solution:

static class Program
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        if (SingleApplicationDetector.IsRunning()) {
            return;
        }

        Application.Run(new MainForm());

        SingleApplicationDetector.Close();
    }
}

And the SingleApplicationDetector:

using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Security.AccessControl;
using System.Threading;

public static class SingleApplicationDetector
{
    public static bool IsRunning()
    {
        string guid = ((GuidAttribute)Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetCustomAttributes(typeof(GuidAttribute), false).GetValue(0)).Value.ToString();
        var semaphoreName = @"Global\" + guid;
        try {
            __semaphore = Semaphore.OpenExisting(semaphoreName, SemaphoreRights.Synchronize);

            Close();
            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception ex) {
            __semaphore = new Semaphore(0, 1, semaphoreName);
            return false;
        }
    }

    public static void Close()
    {
        if (__semaphore != null) {
            __semaphore.Close();
            __semaphore = null;
        }
    }

    private static Semaphore __semaphore;
}

Reason to use Semaphore instead of Mutex:

The Mutex class enforces thread identity, so a mutex can be released only by the thread that acquired it. By contrast, the Semaphore class does not enforce thread identity.

<< System.Threading.Mutex

Ref: Semaphore.OpenExisting()