Single Instance of app

[Al Gonzalez]

Platform: Win 2000
Py Ver: 2.1.1
Experience: Beginner in Python

Is there a standard way in Python to determine if an instance on application
is already running.

I'd like to switch focus in some utilities rather than run multiple
instances.

I had thought about having the app send a request to a server and wait for a
response if
none then set itself up as a server in case another version is started.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.