Windows® via C/C++, Fifth Edition

The CreateProcess Function

You create a process with the CreateProcess function:

BOOL CreateProcess(
   PCTSTR pszApplicationName,
   PTSTR pszCommandLine,
   PSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES psaProcess,
   PSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES psaThread,
   BOOL bInheritHandles,
   DWORD fdwCreate,
   PVOID pvEnvironment,
   PCTSTR pszCurDir,
   PSTARTUPINFO psiStartInfo,
   PPROCESS_INFORMATION ppiProcInfo);

When a thread calls CreateProcess, the system creates a process kernel object with an initial usage count of 1. This process kernel object is not the process itself but a small data structure that the operating system uses to manage the process—you can think of the process kernel object as a small data structure that consists of statistical information about the process. The system then creates a ...