[SOLVED] OpenNETCF Process ID Confusion

OpenNETCF Process ID Confusion

I'm using OpenNETCF 2.3 in a .NET Compact Framework 3.5 mobile device application. At program startup I am looking for duplicate running instances of my application. I am confused why the current ProcessID I get from various methods seems to be incorrect about half the time.

Public Shared Sub Main()
    Dim appName As String = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().Name & ".exe"
    Dim intCurrentProcessId As Integer = OpenNETCF.Diagnostics.ProcessHelper.GetCurrentProcessID
    'Dim intCurrentProcessId As Integer = Process.GetCurrentProcess.Id()

    For Each p As ToolHelp.ProcessEntry In ToolHelp.ProcessEntry.GetProcesses
        If p.ProcessID <> intCurrentProcessId AndAlso p.ExeFile.Contains(appName) Then
            MessageBox.Show("KILLING p.ExeFile: " & p.ExeFile & " p.processid: " & p.ProcessID & " intCurrentProcessId: " & intCurrentProcessId)
            'p.Kill()
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Why is it that intCurrentProcessId would seemingly randomly not match p.ProcessId and be a negative number?

My rep is too low to post a screenshot that shows p.ProcessID = 3459667490 and intCurrentProcessID = -835299806.

Please understand that alternate methods of testing for single instances don't interest me. Thank you.

Solution

First, a quick look at signed versus unsigned numbers (feel free to use Calculator on your desktop to validate these).

3459667490 in unsigned decimal is 0xCE365622 in 32-bit hex.
-835299806 in signed decimal is 0xCE365622 in 32-bit hex.

See the similarity?

If you cast so the are both either signed or unsigned I'm willing to bet that 100% of the time the ID's will match.