We Keep Coding

How to start Zoom meeting automatically from C# Console Application

I am trying to build a simple app (As Console Application) that enters a Zoom meeting automatically at a specified time.
The app opens the Zoom meeting using Process.Start function, and then wait for the "Zoom Meeting" process to start.
It works well if I use a Windows shortcut file (.lnk extension) with the correct parameters, like shown here
But is doesn't work when I use the "regular" Zoom link (the url) because it opens the browser and waits for user input (It shows an alert).
I know how to send input to a process, so all I need is to a reference to the browser window that opened, but I can't find it.
The Process.Start doesn't return it and when I looped through all processes (Process.GetProcesses) I couldn't find any useful name that I can search for.
So, how can I get a reference to the browser process? Or at least send it input when it start.
Thanks in advance.

=== EDIT ===
After digging in Windows Registry, I have found an even simpler code to achieve it:
public static void OpenZoomMeeting(string link)
{
string zoomDirectory = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(#"%APPDATA%\Zoom\bin");
ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
FileName = $#"{zoomDirectory}\Zoom.exe",
Arguments = $"--url={link}",
WorkingDirectory = zoomDirectory
};
Process.Start(startInfo);
}
=== OLD CODE ===
Found the solution thanks to jdweng
He said that I should to use a WebBrowser to open the meeting without the prompt, so I looked into it.
Because my app is a Console Application, I can't just use a WebBrowser so I found That solution and it worked for me.
Thank you for your help
===The code===
private void RunBrowserThread(string url) {
var th = new Thread(() => {
var br = new WebBrowser();
br.DocumentCompleted += Browser_DocumentCompleted;
br.Navigate(url);
Application.Run();
});
th.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
th.Start();
}
void Browser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e) {
var br = sender as WebBrowser;
if (br.Url == e.Url) {
Console.WriteLine("Natigated to {0}", e.Url);
Application.ExitThread(); // Stops the thread
}
}

CEFSharp app displays blank screen and then responds on it's own after a minute

I've been working on a app which uses CEFSharp (version 83.4.20) to load my companies VOIP platform (engage.ringcentral.com). The source is up on Github https://github.com/dylanlangston/EngageRC
The app has been working for about a month now and after putting it into production I've received reports of an odd issue. People are seeing a blank screen and unable to interact with the webpage (
Example of issue ). After a few minutes the issue seems to resolve itself and their able to interact with the webpage again. I haven't been able to reproduce the issue myself.
I thought this might be a rendering issue. So far I've tried to adjust the following in my app:
Remove the lines below.
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-gpu");
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-gpu-shader-disk-cache", "1");
Replace them with.
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-gpu-compositing");
Unfortunately this hasn't resolved the issues and I'm unsure what I'm missing.
The relevant code for CEF Initialization is located in https://github.com/dylanlangston/EngageRC/blob/master/Windows/MainWindow.Designer.cs under the InitializeChromium method. See Below
//
// Chrome
//
private CefSharp.WinForms.ChromiumWebBrowser chromeBrowser;
public ChromiumWebBrowser InitializeChromium(string URL, string Name)
{
// Check if already Initialized
if (Cef.IsInitialized == false)
{
CefSettings settings = new CefSettings();
// Enable Logging if debugging or console window
if (!this.debug || !this.console)
{
settings.LogSeverity = LogSeverity.Disable;
}
else
{
settings.LogSeverity = LogSeverity.Verbose;
}
// Enable Microphone settings
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("enable-media-stream", "1");
// Set Custom Browser Paths
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-gpu-shader-disk-cache", "1");
// Disable GPU to fix rendering issues on some machines.
settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-gpu");
// Disable CORS protection (cross site scripting) which the engage.ringcentral.com site doesn't seem to like/respect, disabled as the website doesn't seem to improve with this turned on.
//settings.CefCommandLineArgs.Add("disable-web-security");
// Enable session Cookie persistence, disabled as it's unneeded.
//settings.PersistSessionCookies = true;
// Custom Browser paths
settings.BrowserSubprocessPath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe");
settings.LocalesDirPath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\locales\");
settings.ResourcesDirPath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\");
// Check if Resources folder is writable. If it isn't then write to application data.
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\"));
if ((di.Attributes & FileAttributes.ReadOnly) == FileAttributes.ReadOnly)
{
settings.RootCachePath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), #"EngageRC\CEFSharp\cache");
settings.CachePath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), #"EngageRC\CEFSharp\cache");
settings.LogFile = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), #"EngageRC\CEFSharp\debug.log");
}
else
{
settings.RootCachePath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\cache");
settings.CachePath = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\cache");
settings.LogFile = Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\CEFSharp\debug.log");
}
// Initialize cef with the provided settings or add new tab
Cef.Initialize(settings, performDependencyCheck: true, browserProcessHandler: null);
}
// Create a browser component
chromeBrowser = new ChromiumWebBrowser(URL);
// Set Name
chromeBrowser.Name = Name;
// Adjust size and scaling
this.chromeBrowser.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
this.chromeBrowser.Width = this.Width;
this.chromeBrowser.Height = this.Height;
// Add control
this.Controls.Add(chromeBrowser);
// Bring to front
this.chromeBrowser.BringToFront();
// Set label to Goodbye.
this.label1.Text = "Goodbye";
// Return control
return chromeBrowser;
}
I wasn't able to find any previous questions with my Google foo so it seems this isn't something other's are seeing their applications. I'm still learning the ropes when it comes to C# so it's 100% possible this is my own fault and something I'm doing wrong.
I was able to get verbose logging from a machine that experienced the issue. I'm mostly seeing the following error. Full logs at https://gist.github.com/dylanlangston/194e389ead437e6c6fe08b2d4746bf43
[0729/083616.491:ERROR:paint_controller.cc(646)] PaintController::FinishCycle() completed
Any ideas or recommendations to help troubleshoot this is appreciated!
Updated: Based on #amaitland's helpful comments it seems this behavior may be caused by using Thread.Sleep on a thread on I'm not supposed to.
After reviewing my code it looks like I have this in two locations.
First I call thread.sleep to wait until the browsers zoom level matches the value I've saved to the windows isolatedstorage. This shouldn't be running except when the application first starts. I don't think this is the problem but I am posting it here anyways to be safe. (https://github.com/dylanlangston/EngageRC/blob/master/CEFSharpHandlers.cs)
public void OnLoadingStateChanged(object sender, LoadingStateChangedEventArgs args)
{
ChromiumWebBrowser chrome = (ChromiumWebBrowser)sender;
if (!args.IsLoading) // Loading finished.
{
// If first load set zoom level to previous level
if (firstLoad < 3)
{
try
{
double zoom = double.Parse(ConfigReader.ReadIsolatedStorage("z"), System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
while (args.Browser.GetZoomLevelAsync().Result != zoom) { chrome.SetZoomLevel(zoom); Thread.Sleep(50); }
}
catch { }
firstLoad++;
}
// These JS and CSS modifications built into EngageRC
string hotfixJS = "";
string hotfixCSS = "/* Fix for dropdowns */ ul.dropdown-menu[style=\\\"opacity: 1;\\\"] {display: block !important; } /* End fix for dropdowns */";
// Inject custom javascript and css code on page load
chrome.ExecuteScriptAsync(hotfixJS);
chrome.ExecuteScriptAsync("var engageRCSS = document.getElementById('EngageRCSS'); if (!engageRCSS) { var node = document.createElement('style'); node.setAttribute('id', 'EngageRCSS'); node.innerHTML = \"" + hotfixCSS +"\"; document.body.appendChild(node); }");
if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\Custom.js"))) { chrome.ExecuteScriptAsync(System.IO.File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\Custom.js"))); }
if (File.Exists(Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\Custom.css"))) { chrome.ExecuteScriptAsync("var customCSS = document.getElementById('customcss'); if (!customCSS) { var node = document.createElement('style'); node.setAttribute('id', 'customcss'); node.innerHTML = \"" + System.IO.File.ReadAllText(Path.Combine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, #"Resources\Custom.css")).Replace("\n", String.Empty).Replace("\r", String.Empty).Replace("\t", String.Empty).Replace("\"", "\\\"") + "\"; document.body.appendChild(node); }"); }
}
}
I also have it when displaying a notification. This is most likely my problem as this is running in the main application thread... (https://github.com/dylanlangston/EngageRC/blob/master/NotificationSupport.cs)
public void displayNotification(string Title = "EngageRC", string Message = "")
{
// Display notification for 5 seconds
Notify notification = MainWindow.notification;
try
{
if (!IsActive(hWnd)) // Check if application is already active.
{
string config = ConfigReader.GetConfigValue("NotificationsDisabled").ToLower();
if (!(config == "true" || config == "1"))
{
notification.NewNotification(Title, Message, 5000);
}
config = ConfigReader.GetConfigValue("GetFocusOnCallDisabled").ToLower();
if (!(config == "true" || config == "1") && (Message == "You have incoming call"))
{
// Minimize window
ShowWindow(hWnd, 0x02);
// Restore window to previous state.
ShowWindow(hWnd, 0x09);
}
config = ConfigReader.GetConfigValue("GetFocusOnPendingDispositionDisabled").ToLower();
if (!(config == "true" || config == "1") && (Message == "You have a disposition pending"))
{
// Minimize window
ShowWindow(hWnd, 0x02);
// Restore window to previous state.
ShowWindow(hWnd, 0x09);
}
}
}
catch { notification.SetIconVisible(false); }
finally
{
Thread.Sleep(4999);
notification.SetIconVisible(false);
}
}
Based on what I've heard I should make the Notification Form run on a different thread from the main application then? Or am I way off base?
Update:
I was able to move the notification into it's own thread. I'm closing this issue and will have the user's test to see if the blank screen persists.
Thanks for the help again!!

#amaitland's comments were helpful in narrowing this issue down.

C# Get the Windows Explore Path which has the focus

I would like to get the Path of the windows which has the focus.
Ex: I have 3 windows Opened
a. C:\Windows
b. C:\Windows\System32
c. C:\Users\COMP-0\Documents
And i am working on c (C:\Users\COMP-0\Documents)
So i would like to get this path (C:\Users\COMP-0\Documents) programmatically in C#.

Expanding on this answer to get the selected files in a folder, you can use a similar approach to get the current folder and therefore it's path.
This needs some COM and requires:
Getting the active window using GetForegroundWindow
Find the current list of InternetExplorer windows using SHDocVw.ShellWindows,
Matching handle pointers to find the current window
Getting hold of the folder path inside the active window using the IShellFolderViewDual2 COM interface.
There are a couple of caveats to be aware of:
Special folders (Favourites, My Computer etc) will give you the file path as "::{GUID}" where the GUID points to the CLSID for that folder in the registry. It is probably possible to convert that value to a path.
Going to "Desktop" will return null for the current folder
Focussing Internet Explorer will trigger a match on the active window so we need to ensure we are in a Shell Folder
If in a special folder or Desktop this code will just return the current window title - usually the name of the special folder - using the details in this answer.
private static string GetActiveExplorerPath()
{
// get the active window
IntPtr handle = GetForegroundWindow();
// Required ref: SHDocVw (Microsoft Internet Controls COM Object) - C:\Windows\system32\ShDocVw.dll
ShellWindows shellWindows = new SHDocVw.ShellWindows();
// loop through all windows
foreach (InternetExplorer window in shellWindows)
{
// match active window
if (window.HWND == (int)handle)
{
// Required ref: Shell32 - C:\Windows\system32\Shell32.dll
var shellWindow = window.Document as Shell32.IShellFolderViewDual2;
// will be null if you are in Internet Explorer for example
if (shellWindow != null)
{
// Item without an index returns the current object
var currentFolder = shellWindow.Folder.Items().Item();
// special folder - use window title
// for some reason on "Desktop" gives null
if (currentFolder == null || currentFolder.Path.StartsWith("::"))
{
// Get window title instead
const int nChars = 256;
StringBuilder Buff = new StringBuilder(nChars);
if (GetWindowText(handle, Buff, nChars) > 0)
{
return Buff.ToString();
}
}
else
{
return currentFolder.Path;
}
}
break;
}
}
return null;
}
// COM Imports
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

How to take the backup of all Windows Registry keys in c#

I want to take the backup of all registry keys at once using c#. I search for it but a lots of hints for a specific registry key backup but not for all keys. So if any one knows that how to take backup of all registry keys or any method to export all registry in c# kindly tell me. Thanks

After more search i found two solutions the first one is a link
And the second one is by using SendKeys. Now here is my code to export all registry keys.
But for doing this first you have to start your visual studio as administrator and then start regedit then run this code.
Process[] processlist = Process.GetProcesses();
string title = "";
foreach (Process process in processlist) {
title = process.MainWindowTitle;
if (title == #"Registry Editor" && process.MainWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero) {
SetForegroundWindow(process.MainWindowHandle);
Thread.Sleep(2000);
SendKeys.SendWait("%+F+E");
Thread.Sleep(500);
SendKeys.SendWait("%+A");
Thread.Sleep(500);
SendKeys.SendWait("%+S");
Thread.Sleep(500);
SendKeys.SendWait("TEST");
Thread.Sleep(500);
SendKeys.SendWait("%+S");
Thread.Sleep(1000);
SendKeys.SendWait("%+{TAB}");
break;
}
}
And the supported functions are
[DllImport("USER32.DLL")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

How to open in default browser in C#

I am designing a small C# application and there is a web browser in it. I currently have all of my defaults on my computer say google chrome is my default browser, yet when I click a link in my application to open in a new window, it opens internet explorer. Is there any way to make these links open in the default browser instead? Or is there something wrong on my computer?
My problem is that I have a webbrowser in the application, so say you go to google and type in "stack overflow" and right click the first link and click "Open in new window" it opens in IE instead of Chrome. Is this something I have coded improperly, or is there a setting not correct on my computer
===EDIT===
This is really annoying. I am already aware that the browser is IE, but I had it working fine before. When I clicked a link it opened in chrome. I was using sharp develop to make the application at that time because I could not get c# express to start up. I did a fresh windows install and since I wasn't too far along in my application, I decided to start over, and now I am having this problem. That is why I am not sure if it is my computer or not. Why would IE start up the whole browser when a link is clicked rather than simply opening the new link in the default browser?

You can just write
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com");
EDIT: The WebBrowser control is an embedded copy of IE.
Therefore, any links inside of it will open in IE.
To change this behavior, you can handle the Navigating event.

For those finding this question in dotnet core. I found a solution here
Code:
private void OpenUrl(string url)
{
try
{
Process.Start(url);
}
catch
{
// hack because of this: https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/10361
if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
{
url = url.Replace("&", "^&");
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo(url) { UseShellExecute = true });
}
else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Linux))
{
Process.Start("xdg-open", url);
}
else if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.OSX))
{
Process.Start("open", url);
}
else
{
throw;
}
}
}

After researching a lot I feel most of the given answer will not work with dotnet core.
1.System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://google.com"); -- Will not work with dotnet core
2.It will work but it will block the new window opening in case default browser is chrome
myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
myProcess.Start();
Below is the simplest and will work in all the scenarios.
Process.Start("explorer", url);

public static void GoToSite(string url)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(url);
}
that should solve your problem

Did you try Processas mentioned here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/system.diagnostics.process.aspx?
You could use
Process myProcess = new Process();
try
{
// true is the default, but it is important not to set it to false
myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "http://some.domain.tld/bla";
myProcess.Start();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

My default browser is Google Chrome and the accepted answer is giving the following error:
The system cannot find the file specified.
I solved the problem and managed to open an URL with the default browser by using this code:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", "http://google.com");

I'm using this in .NET 5, on Windows, with Windows Forms. It works even with other default browsers (such as Firefox):
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo { FileName = url, UseShellExecute = true });
Based on this and this.

Try this , old school way ;)
public static void openit(string x)
{
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("cmd", "/C start" + " " + x);
}
using : openit("www.google.com");

Am I the only one too scared to call System.Diagnostics.Process.Start() on a string I just read off the internet?
public bool OnBeforeBrowse(IWebBrowser chromiumWebBrowser, IBrowser browser, IFrame frame, IRequest request, bool userGesture, bool isRedirect)
{
Request = request;
string url = Request.Url;
if (Request.TransitionType != TransitionType.LinkClicked)
{ // We are only changing the behavoir when someone clicks on a link.
// Let the embedded browser handle this request itself.
return false;
}
else
{ // The user clicked on a link. Something like a filter icon, which links to the help for that filter.
// We open a new window for that request. This window cannot change. It is running a JavaScript
// application that is talking with the C# main program.
Uri uri = new Uri(url);
try
{
switch (uri.Scheme)
{
case "http":
case "https":
{ // Stack overflow says that this next line is *the* way to open a URL in the
// default browser. I don't trust it. Seems like a potential security
// flaw to read a string from the network then run it from the shell. This
// way I'm at least verifying that it is an http request and will start a
// browser. The Uri object will also verify and sanitize the URL.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(uri.ToString());
break;
}
case "showdevtools":
{
WebBrowser.ShowDevTools();
break;
}
}
}
catch { }
// Tell the browser to cancel the navigation.
return true;
}
}
This code was designed to work with CefSharp, but should be easy to adapt.

Take a look at the GeckoFX control.
GeckoFX is an open-source component
which makes it easy to embed Mozilla
Gecko (Firefox) into any .NET Windows
Forms application. Written in clean,
fully commented C#, GeckoFX is the
perfect replacement for the default
Internet Explorer-based WebBrowser
control.

dotnet core throws an error if we use Process.Start(URL). The following code will work in dotnet core. You can add any browser instead of Chrome.
var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("Chrome");
var path = processes.FirstOrDefault()?.MainModule?.FileName;
Process.Start(path, url);

This opened the default for me:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(e.LinkText.ToString());

I tried
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("https://google.com");
which works for most of the cases but I run into an issue having a url which points to a file:
The system cannot find the file specified.
So, I tried this solution, which is working with a little modification:
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer.exe", $"\"{uri}\"");
Without wrapping the url with "", the explorer opens your document folder.

In UWP:
await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("http://google.com"));

Open dynamically
string addres= "Print/" + Id + ".htm";
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, addres));

update the registry with current version of explorer
#"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION"
public enum BrowserEmulationVersion
{
Default = 0,
Version7 = 7000,
Version8 = 8000,
Version8Standards = 8888,
Version9 = 9000,
Version9Standards = 9999,
Version10 = 10000,
Version10Standards = 10001,
Version11 = 11000,
Version11Edge = 11001
}
key.SetValue(programName, (int)browserEmulationVersion, RegistryValueKind.DWord);

This works nicely for .NET 5 (Windows):
ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo {
FileName = "cmd.exe",
Arguments = $ "/C start https://stackoverflow.com/",
WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden,
CreateNoWindow = true
};
Process.Start(psi);

to fix problem with Net 6
i used this code from ChromeLauncher
,default browser will be like it
internal static class ChromeLauncher
{
private const string ChromeAppKey = #"\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\chrome.exe";
private static string ChromeAppFileName
{
get
{
return (string) (Registry.GetValue("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" + ChromeAppKey, "", null) ??
Registry.GetValue("HKEY_CURRENT_USER" + ChromeAppKey, "", null));
}
}
public static void OpenLink(string url)
{
string chromeAppFileName = ChromeAppFileName;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(chromeAppFileName))
{
throw new Exception("Could not find chrome.exe!");
}
Process.Start(chromeAppFileName, url);
}
}

I'd comment on one of the above answers, but I don't yet have the rep.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("explorer", "stackoverflow.com");
nearly works, unless the url has a query-string, in which case this code just opens a file explorer window. The key does seem to be the UseShellExecute flag, as given in Alex Vang's answer above (modulo other comments about launching random strings in web browsers).

You can open a link in default browser using cmd command start <link>, this method works for every language that has a function to execute a system command on cmd.exe.
This is the method I use for .NET 6 to execute a system command with redirecting the output & input, also pretty sure it will work on .NET 5 with some modifications.
using System.Diagnostics.Process cmd = new();
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.Start();
cmd.StandardInput.WriteLine("start https://google.com");
cmd.StandardInput.Flush();
cmd.StandardInput.Close();
cmd.WaitForExit();