The invention provides a method of inter-process communication between at least two application processes on one computer. One embodiment of the invention includes a first process of a first application determining a name of a first file in a file system of the computer, the name of the first file being associated with a second application, the first file containing information for the first process to connect to a second process of the second application for inter-process communication; and the first process initiating a first connection to the second process using the information contained in the first file; the first process communicating with the second process using the first connection if the first connection is successfully established; and the first process starting a third process of the second application if the first process fails to establish a connection with the second process.