Win API

Answer:
Yes, there is a way to determine if a previous instance of the application is already running. Try the following:

// ===================================================
// Called by your project file, prevents a 2nd
// instance of the program from executing and
// instead activates the already executing instance.
// Returns TRUE if a previous instance of the
// program is already running.
// ===================================================
function IsPrevInst: Boolean;
var
  semName,
  appClass: PChar;
  hSem    : THandle;
  hWndMe  : HWnd;
  appTitle: Array[0..MAX_PATH] of Char;
begin
  // Init
  Result := FALSE;
  GetMem(semName,15);
  GetMem(appClass,15);
  StrPCopy(semName,'SemaphoreName');
  StrPCopy(appClass,'TApplication');
  StrPCopy(appTitle,ExtractFileName(Application.Title));

  // Create a Semaphore in memory.  If this is the
  // first instance, then hSem's value should be 0.
  hSem := CreateSemaphore(nil,0,1,semName);

  // Check to see if the semaphore exists
  if (hSem <> 0) and (GetLastError() = ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS) then
    begin
      CloseHandle(hSem);

      // Get the currently executing window's handle then change
      // its title so we can look for the other instance
      hWndMe := FindWindow(appClass,appTitle);
      SetWindowText(hWndMe,'ZZZZZZZ');

      // Search for the other instance of this window then bring
      // it to the top of the Z-order stack.  We find it by
      // matching the Application Class and Application Title.
      hWndMe := FindWindow(appClass,appTitle);
      if (hWndMe <> 0) then
        begin
          BringWindowToTop(hWndMe);
          ShowWindow(hWndMe,SW_SHOWNORMAL);
        end;

      Result := TRUE;
    end;

  // Destroy PChars
  FreeMem(semName,15);
  FreeMem(appClass,15);
end;