Is it safe to recompile an executable while it's running?

Question

What happens if I recompile an executable while it\'s running? Does the operating system read all of the executable\'s contents into memory when it starts running it, so it

Answer 1

In Windows you can't delete a locked file but what most people don't know is that you can move or rename a running exe.

So you could

• move the old exe to a temp directory on the same drive
• schedule it for deletion on the next reboot: MoveFileEx(name, NULL, MOVEFILE_DELAY_UNTIL_REBOOT);
• move a new exe in its place.

The old program will keep running but new processes will use the new file.