I am writing a glassing program, similar to Glass2k (see image below) as I often need to view my pdf tutorials while working on the program in question.
I have so far been able to write the program that glasses the windows I want (via a global keyboard shortcut).
I now need a way to replicate Glass2k's feature which makes glassed windows stay on top of all windows irrespective of which program I switch to (more like setting a WinForm's TopMost property to True. Is there any way of doing this in .NET?
I'm prepared to get down and dirty with DllImports and all so any suggestion is welcome as long as it is in VB.NET or C#.
Edit
This is just based on a whim but I could also do with code that allows me to minimize, maximise restore and close any window as is done in Process Explorer? (see image)
I found out that a lot of work had been done by Michael Schierl on wrapping PInvokes in managed code. This is his site: Managed Windows API.
It turns out that the library is quite extensive and covers a lot of the commonly used PInvokes, makikng it very useful in Upper-Intermediate application development.
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.
How can I create a window which is fully apparent to the user but is not visible in screenshots. I know that this is possible since Neo SafeKeys (an onscreen keyboard to defeat keyloggers) does not appear in the screenshots taken by keylogging software I installed.
To give you an idea, the window is fully visible to the user, however when a screenshot is taken, the Neo SafeKeys window does not appear at all (as if it does not even exist).
Neo SafeKeys states that it uses an invisible protection layer above the window to protect against screenshots. I have searched all over the internet to see how can I reproduce this, to no avail. Does anybody know how this can be performed (windows which is visible to user but invisible in screenshots)?
What you can do is you can prevent the PrtScn key from doing anything when pressed. Take a look at this article while shows you how to do this.
What this article is doing is clearing out the clipboard. What you can do instead is capture the screen image and digitally remove your application, then put the revised image on the clipboard, thus giving the "Effect" of making your window transparent.
Also, you might want to look at this SO question which gives an alternative way to make your window just appear "blue", though its not easy to do.
Does anybody know how this can be performed (windows which is visible to user but invisible in screenshots)?
Use DirectX to render directly to the device.
In your C# application you can set up a global hook to monitor keyboard events. Then your application becomes the global handler for print screens. Now if another application managed screen prints natively, can't stop that, but anything running through windows, you can get at.
The WM_KEYBOARD_LL hook is one of the few global hooks that can be used in managed code because it doesn't require a DLL to be injected into every target.
For some code you can visit here:
Adam's Blog
Keep in mind that these are global hooks so you want to make sure nothing else (other applications) are effected. I've used these in the past as we hosted showing a power point in an application we worked on. Basically we didn't want the user to invoke any powerpoint menus or keyboard short cuts so we used a global hook. We always checked to see whether the users was in a certain area (screen) and in our application, otherwise we would effect other applications functionality (including our own!)
Microsoft Information:
Hooks Overview
There's this.....
visual cryptography
live example here
But this could be easily coded against by taking multiple screenshots and laying them overeachother and such...
If you are using Windows, and you can avoid that screenlogging happens, you can implement a nice solution like a virtual desktop to embed your process into it. When a process is running inside a virtual desktop it is possible to bypass an screenlogger tool that runs over win32 Api.
Check out this article so you can sneak a peek how to implement a nice solution to scape from screen and keyboard monitoring.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/7392/Lock-Windows-Desktop?fid=62485&select=3139662&fr=101#xx0xx
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.
Those two useful classes are both under the System.Windows.Forms reference....
I can't see much relation between those and winforms.. Does anybody know why they're there?
thanks.
They internally use Win32 platform APIs, on which WinForm was built.
Windows Forms was, when it was made, the ONLY (Microsoft) means of creating a graphical user interface on the desktop.
SendKeys and the Clipboard are both using the Windows API in order to manipulate GUI applications. When this was created, it was reasonable to assume that these would be used from within a GUI program, which (then) meant a Windows Forms application.
Neither of these would typically be used from a Console application, but if you were doing so, including the "windowing" assemblies (which, at the time, meant windows forms) was a reasonable thing to do, since you're working with the Windowing system.
I do agree, though, that now that WPF exists, it would be nicer to have these in a separate assembly. However, Microsoft is very good about maintaining backwards compatibility.
To this end, they left this in the Windows Forms namespaces, but also implemented System.Windows.Clipboard for WPF applications. (I believe they decided that SendKeys was not required in modern development, since it's kind of abused, and just left it out by design.)
Generally speaking, you would not use Clipboard or SendKeys with an ASP.Net application or a console application, so it makes total sense for them to be in System.Windows.Forms.
Where would you expect them to be? In System.ClipboardAndSendKeys?
SendKeys can be handy for highlighting of textboxes. SendKeys "{HOME}+{END}" is a typical technique carried over from Visual Basic once a textbox has focus.
The Clipboard class is useful because it allows you to get data stored on a machine's clipboard, especially useful if it's data that comes from another application running. The clipboard is expected behavior in almost all applications that have any copy/paste semantic.
I am trying to do my winform application dock and follow another application, like IE or word. My full plan is run the program underground and then this specific application is running, my winform will maximize and dock, will follow if moved, minimize if this application is minimized.
Can you guys show me some ideas about how to do it?
thanks
You will have to get the messages send to the other application and analyze them. Here are some resources on window system hooks on MSDN and in the MSDN Magazin. So you will have to use good old P/Invoke because there is no managed API.
Hooks can work; however, both the programs you mention (IE & Word) provide APIs that allow you to customize the user interface. I would first look there. BTW, Due to IE's restricted environment your going to have a lot of trouble getting the standard hook APIs to work.