If you have used GameRanger, you will better understand this question.
I want to send a direct input, like keystrokes and mouse clicks, to another program (given that I know its executable) on Windows.
So far, I've been using .NET's SendKeys class, according to this MSDN article.
The program that I'm targeting is another .NET application, but I was having a lot of trouble, as it opens a large number of windows, with random handles every time (and names). Thus, I couldn't figure out a way to reliably verify that the particular window that I wanted was open. My solution was relying on the user to have it open, and having focused the correct input control, then my application sending alt+tab and writing its thing with SendWait*.
It does work fine most of the time, but it's the very antithesis of robustness. GameRanger does a similar thing, but much better. How can I achieve the same reliability? Any method/library that can run on windows is ok, if it's in C#, the better.
*Sometimes, a SendWait call might get lost; I haven't forced the new implementation as instructed in the msdn article, I will try it if nothing better exists.
Related
I need help. I made a WPF application. Its functionality is that it launches the application when it is launched. But if it is pinned to the taskbar, then a JumpList appears. From which you can also call other applications. I ran into this problem: I do not know how to make the program automatically pinned to the taskbar after the first launch. Please help someone. I read on microsoft's website, but it's not suitable for wpf. Please help with this.
Maybe there is some kind of library? Maybe there is a way with the registry?
Don't ask for support for pinning, here is why.
Microsoft goes in great length to prevent applications altering user preferences. Why? Because otherwise, every application would do it. Giving access to user preferences via API means developers start exploiting it. It means applications fighting for screen space. You install compnay A product and it unpins company B product.
If such API existed, that is malware.
And an API for only the calling executable is not viable, it would mean that somewhere deep in the operating system the function call to do it for any executable exists. And then somebody finds it and calls it directly. Besides, it has been a big trouble for Microsoft to decouple the shell as it is.
Instead, explorer handles it.
Further reading Why is there no programmatic access to the Start menu pin list?.
Some application do manage to pin.
Regardless of what, it is a bad practice.
It is not guaranteed to work, much less in the next Windows update.
One way is to mimic user input. It is hard to consider all cases (what if the taskbar is hidden, what if it is not in the usual place, what if explorer is not running, etc.), but you can imagine setting the pointer position and sending keys.
Another way would be to write directly to the list. You might have found out that the pinned items are at:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
And they are regular, good old, shortcuts. And you could add your own. And it would not work.
Thus, the answer is "Please don't do it".
For a more detailed explanation, you can try to refer here.
Is there anyway to find what kind of window is opened on the desktop in real time?
It may need C# or C++. What I have found right now is to use C# Process.GetProcesses() method to find the opened windows on desktop.
But the output cannot be changed when the users have opened any new windows. So, is there any method I can use to track the opening windows in real time?
Also, is there any way to track the mouse movement on a specific window by using our web service?
Many many thanks!
I do agree with tnw that this sounds sketchy (possibly an example would be useful to help here). However, you want to look at the windows api calls:
GetForeGroundWindow
GetCursorPos
The first will only give you the current window, and not all open windows, but it sounds like this is what you really want anyway?
Source code to Windows keystroke logger that does this (in C++): http://16s.us/16k/
Edit: It shows the open window the user is typing in (in real time), but not all open Windows, only the active window in use.
I'm writing a console app that detects USB drives, formats them, and then runs a program called UnetBootin to write an ISO to the drives. Everything works fine, but the issue is UNetbootin doesn't simply "exit" so .WaitForExit() doesn't work unless the user clicks the "Exit" button.
The only way I can imagine to solve this is either by checking for that button to appear or trying to guess if the process is idling somehow. In either case, I wouldn't know where to start.
This is going to be ugly no matter how you slice it. I 'm not aware of a better approach, so here is one that would work AFAIK:
Get the PID of your target process (you already have that if you can call WaitForExit)
Get handles to all windows of that process
Use GetWindowText to get the text of each and every window from step 2
If any window has text equal to "Reboot Now", you know you 're done
WARNING: At this point I should mention that GetWindowText should be considered extremely dangerous because it can do evil things to your thread, including hanging it, due to no fault of your own. In practice it won't happen, but it's something you should know.
Is there a practical way to set the global status message in Pidgin for Windows from .NET?
Dbus is not available in the Windows version of Pidgin.
Searching SO and the net has revealed helpful tips such as "rewrite libpurple in C#", which might be a bit beyond my time/enthusiasm level for this project at least...
Thanks
how about writing a plugin, and have it expose a way for your other program to pass the status to it. Could be a file that you write the status to, or maybe a local tcp port (if you can do that in plugins).
Have you considered simply simulating keyboard input to the Pidgin window using C#?
You will need to find the Pidgin window programmatically and then set your status by sending simulated keyboard input to that window handle.
A good Microsoft example of how it was done with Calculator:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171548.aspx
As I recall, Pidgin will set your status if you simply put the main window (buddy list) in focus, start typing, and then press Enter. Simulating this keyboard input should be quite straightforward.
A dirty solution (that future versions of Pidgin might break), yes, but certainly MUCH easier than writing a plug-in or making your own libpurple wrapper.
I have a windows form application which needs to be the TopMost. I've set my form to be the TopMost and my application works as I'd like it to except for in one case.
There is a 3rd party application (referred to as player.exe) that displays SWF movie files on a portion of the screen that popup on top of my application.
Using Process Monitor I determined that player.exe application calls
flash.exe <PositionX> <PositionY> <Width> <Height> <MovieFile>
in my case:
flash.exe 901 96 379 261 somemovie.swf
Since flash.exe is being spawned in a new process after my form has been set to the TopMost it is appearing on top of my application.
First thing I did was make my application minimize the player.exe main application window hoping that this would prevent the Flash from appearing also. But, unfortunately it doesn't... even with the window minimized whenever the flash movie starts it shows up at the pixel location (901,96). I then tried creating a timer to keep setting the form.TopMost property to true every 10ms. This sort of works but you still see a very quick blip of the swf file.
Is there some type of Windows API call which can be used to temporarily prevent player.exe from spawning child processes which are visible? I admit it sounds a little far fetched. But, curious if anyone else has had a similar problem.
Addendum:
This addendum is to provide a reply to some of the suggestions layed out in Mathew's post below.
For the emergency situation described in the comments, I would look at possible solutions along these lines:
1) How does the third party application normally get started and
stopped? Am I permitted to close it
the same way? If it is a service, the
Service Control Manager can stop it.
If it is a regular application,
sending an escape keystroke (with
SendInput() perhaps) or WM_CLOSE
message to its main window may work.
Easiest way to close the app is to CTRL-ALT-DEL, then kill process. -OR-
The proper way is to Hold ESC while clicking the left mouse button... then input your username and password, navigate some menu's to stop the player.
There is no PAUSE command... believe it or not.
I don't think using WM_CLOSE will help since minimizing the application doesn't. Would that kill the process also? If not, how do you reopen it.
2) If I can't close it nicely, am I permitted to kill it? If so,
TerminateProcess() should work.
I can't kill the process for two reasons. 1) Upon relaunch you need to supply username/password credentials... There may be a way to get around this since it doesn't prompt when the machine is rebooted but... 2) Whenever I kill the process in task manager it doesn't die gracefully and asks if you want to send an error report.
3) If I absolutely have to leave the other process running, I would try
to see if I can programmatically
invoke fast user switching to take me
to a different session (in which there
will be no competing topmost windows).
I don't know where in the API to start
with this one. (Peter Ruderman
suggests SwitchDesktop() for this
purpose in his answer.)
I got really excited by this idea... I found this article on CodeProject which provides a lot of the API Wrapper methods. I stopped implementing it because I think that in order for desktop's to work you must have explorer.exe running (which I do not).
EDIT2: On second thought... maybe explorer.exe isn't needed. I'll give it a try and report back.
Edit3: Was unable to get the code in that article working. Will have to put this on hold for a moment.
Answer Summary
As one might have expected, there is no simple answer to this problem. The best solution would be to problematically switch to a different desktop when you need to guarantee nothing will appear over it. I was unable to find a simple C# implementation of desktop switching that worked and I had a looming doubt that I would just be opening a whole new set of worms once it was implemented. Therefore, I decided not to implement the desktop switching. I did find a C++ Implementation that works well. Please post working C# virtual desktop implementations for others.
Setting the TopMost property (or adding the WS_EX_TOPMOST style to a window) does not make it unique in the system. Any number of topmost windows may be created by any number of applications; the only guarantee is that all topmost windows will be drawn 'above' all non-topmost windows. If there are two or more topmost windows, the Z-order still applies. From your description, I suspect that flash.exe is also creating a topmost window.
Aside from periodically forcing your window to the top of the Z-order, I think there is little you can do. Be warned, however, that this approach is dangerous: if two or more windows are simultaneously trying to force themselves to the top of the Z-order, the result will be a flickering mess that the user will likely have to use the task manager to escape.
I recommend that your program not attempt to meddle with other processes on the computer (unless that is its explicit purpose, e.g. a task manager clone). The computer belongs to the user, and he may not value your program more highly than all others.
Addendum:
For the emergency situation described in the comments, I would look at possible solutions along these lines:
How does the third party application normally get started and stopped? Am I permitted to close it the same way? If it is a service, the Service Control Manager can stop it. If it is a regular application, sending an escape keystroke (with SendInput() perhaps) or WM_CLOSE message to its main window may work.
If I can't close it nicely, am I permitted to kill it? If so, TerminateProcess() should work.
If I absolutely have to leave the other process running, I would try to see if I can programmatically invoke fast user switching to take me to a different session (in which there will be no competing topmost windows). I don't know where in the API to start with this one. (Peter Ruderman suggests SwitchDesktop() for this purpose in his answer.)
You can use the Process class to start flash.exe directly - and use an appropriate ProcessStartInfo settings to show the window in a hidden state - or with a WindowStyle of hidden or minimized.
You could also consider using the SetWindowsHookEx API to intercept the process start API calls, and when the process is flash.exe run some code to restore you window to top-most status.
Matthew's answer is excellent, but I suspect you may be asking the wrong question. Why does your application need to be topmost? If you're trying to create a kiosk or some such, then topmost is not the way to go.
Edit: After reading your response to Matthew's comment, I'd suggest creating a new desktop and switching to it before displaying your alert. (See CreateDesktop and SwitchDesktop in MSDN.)