Running a child process as the parent process - c

Question

Is it possible to run a child process as a parent process?
My directory structure looks like this:
app/program.exe
app/bin/internal.exe
app/bin/something.dll
The program.exe just executes the internal.exe with some arguments.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <process.h>
int main(void) {
_execl(".\\bin\\internal.exe",
"internal.exe", "some args", NULL);
return 0;
}
The arguments are important; without them internal.exe won't do anything.
This mostly works alright, but doesn't integrate well with the taskbar. The program shows up in the taskbar as internal.exe, and pinning it to the taskbar isn't useful, because clicking on the pinned shortcut will execute internal.exe without the arguments, and it will close immediately.
I'd like it to show up as program.exe on the taskbar, so that pinning it to the taskbar pins the working "launcher" instead of the internal part.
Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can't change the child to become the parent in terms of actual processes. The taskbar works at a higher level and gives you more control.
MSDN says:
The following items describe common scenarios that require an explicit AppUserModelID. They also point out cases where multiple explicit AppUserModelIDs should be used.
...
Cooperative or chained processes that to the user are part of the same application should have the same AppUserModelID applied to each process. Examples include games with a launcher process (chained) and Microsoft Windows Media Player, which has a first-run/setup experience running in one process and the main application running in another process (cooperative).
If you are not the author of the child application things become complicated.
If it is Java or some other type of framework it should have the IsHostApp value set. If not, you can try playing with UseExecutableForTaskbarGroupIcon and TaskbarGroupIcon but these will not change the AppUserModelID. Setting NoStartPage will prevent the user from pinning the child application.
If you know how to find the window of the child application you can call SHGetPropertyStoreForWindow in the parent and set the id to the same id as your parent process and/or set the System.AppUserModel.Relaunch* properties.