check to see if a program is running, if it isn't then run it?

Question

Is there a way in Windows to check to see if a program is running (in this case a java application) and if it isn't running (because of a crash) re-run it?

Answer 1

Use PowerShell:

get-process name-pattern

will return details for each process matching name-pattern. If there is no match, then no applicable process is running:

if (@(Get-Process MyProcessName).Length -eq 0) {
  MyProcessName ...
}

(Using @(...) to ensure Get-Process returns an array in all cases.)

NB. if you need this to run frequently, then other options should also be considered (e.g. Performance Monitor alerts can launch an application, or even a custom service).