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How to programmatically force a break in the VBE Editor

I am writing a c# application that opens a number of PI ProcessBook display files. PI Processbook is a program that has embedded Visual Basic for Applications support, including a VBE environment.
The problem that I have is that a number of the displays I want to open have macros in them that run automatically when the display is opened. I have set the macro protection to maximum (which should disable macros completely!), but unfortunately there is something in the TypeLibrary that I am using that means that when a file is opened programatically, it bypasses macro security and the macros run anyway. Go figure....
I am therefore trying to find a way to programatically kill these macros, even if they have started. I have tried using SendKeys.Wait("^{BREAK}") to force into break mode. This "works", but is a bit hit-and-miss: I find that if the macro doesn't pause at some point, SetForegroundWindow can't force the VB Editor to the foreground to accept the sendkeys input. I therefore tried using sendmessage. I used SPY++ to see that CTRL+BREAK appears to send a WM_CANCELMODE message to the window. Apparently, this is somehow handled differently from literally ALT+Tabbing or clicking on the window with a mouse and pressing the CTRL+Break keys, in that the message gets queued, but does not appear to process until the macro has finished executing.
Does anyone have any other suggestions of things to try?

I am therefore trying to find a way to programatically kill these
macros, even if they have started.
Hold down the Shift key while opening the Spreadsheet and the Macro's wont run.
Otherwise you could try halting the code while its running: Ctrl + Alt + PauseBreak
Edit:
I have set the macro protection to maximum (which should disable
macros completely!)
Try disabling them:

In VB.NET check for changes in a file launched with process.start()

I'm developing a vbnet/c#.NET based application that opens files with different applications(excel, word, etc).
The application is launched using Dim app As Process = Process.Start(ProcessProperties)
Now, when I have to terminate the process I use app.Kill() but I need to check if the document has been modified before killing it.
How can I handle that? And if it's possible, how can I launch the application native prompt for save?
Thanks

For office applications use Office Interop Assemblies, not Process.Start to start and control them. Here is an example code for Excel (in VB.NET). You should add Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll to the project references in order for this to work.
oExcel = New Microsof.Office.Interop.Excel.Application
oBook = oExcel.Workbooks.Open(filepath)
'Do your stuff
oBook.Close 'This will trigger the application native prompt if the document was modified
oExcel.Quit()
For other programs it depends much on a program

You can achieve behaviour close to what you require by calling Process.CloseMainWindow rather than Process.Kill.
The behavior of CloseMainWindow is identical to that of a user closing an application's main window using the system menu. Therefore, the request to exit the process by closing the main window does not force the application to quit immediately.
Data edited by the process or resources allocated to the process can be lost if you call Kill. Kill causes an abnormal process termination, and should be used only when necessary. CloseMainWindow enables an orderly termination of the process and closes all windows, so it is preferable for applications with an interface.
In the case of Office applications with unsaved changes, CloseMainWindow would launch the Save dialog. You would need to handle scenarios where the users presses “Cancel”, since that may result in the WaitForExit call blocking indefinitely.
For example:
// Launch Word application.
Process wordProcess =
Process.Start(#"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\winword.exe");
// Give user some time to type in text.
Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(20));
// Request Word to close.
wordProcess.CloseMainWindow();
// Wait until user saves or discards changes.
// May block indefinitely if user cancels.
wordProcess.WaitForExit();

There are different approaches for this problem. You can calculate some sort of initial check-sum and see whether your document has any changes by redoing the check-sum and comparing against the original one.
This part is not very clear from your question, If the document gets saved, probably you can look at the date_modified value of the file to see whether there has been any modifications.

Waiting until enter key is pressed in a notepad

I would like to get the previous entered Text message in an open notepad instance until the ENTER key is pressed (asynchronously).
That is, enter "some text is entered [ENTER]" then I like to get the string "some text is entered" (MessageBox.show(sometext);) Would you please offer me an idea of how to do this without use of a global keyboard hook ? Thank you

If keyboard hook does not work - consider spying on the messages sent/handled by the notepad window. Spyxx tool from Visual Studio tools will show messages (note to match 32/64 bit to be able to spy).
Note that it still requires ability to run in another process -
How can my application read windows messages (WM_SETTEXT) from another application? , I would not recommend native code for doing it instead of C#.

How do I avoid Word 2007 Safe-mode?

I am debugging a C# program that calls Word 2007 for rendering of some office files. It all works well as long as Word starts up and shuts down properly.
In the few instances where it wasn't, there is a pop-up message from Word the next time. It basically says that it wasn't started properly last time and then asks if I would like to start it in Safe-mode. Is there any way of avoiding this popup message?

There are a few approaches here:
Do you really need to avoid safe mode, or just the dialog? If you can start Word with the /safe option then it will always be in safe mode and shouldn't ask you.
Do you know what causes safe mode? Maybe starting Word with the /a option to disable add-ins (assuming you're not using any) would prevent the cause of the crashing in the first place.
See if you can figure out what causes Word to think it should open in safe mode. There has to be a file or registry entry that trips it up. You can use Process Monitor to see what files and registry entries it looks at, and see which ones are different between traces from a regular startup and one where it asks for safe mode. Then make sure that condition doesn't exist just prior to opening Word.
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/210565 for a list of command line options for Word.

I have the same problem with powerpoint. We run a theatre that does slide shows in between shows. If powerpoint somehow crashes or closes uncleanly, you are prompted to start in safe mode. What happens is that the "do you want to start powerpoint in safe mode" comes up and requires user intervention to fix. I would like to disable this "feature" or safe mode entirely. The closest I have come is the following fix, which I have now implemented but I do not know if it will actually prevent it or not until another crash (which can take months to happen - thankfully). Seems promising though!
Open up a blank Word document on your computer.
Click on the circular icon in the upper left-hand corner. Select "Word Options" from the menu.
Click on "Trust Center" on the left-hand side of the menu.
Select "Trust Center Settings."
Select the "Active X Settings" and uncheck the box for "Safe Mode." This will disable the feature in all Office programs.
Hit "OK" to save your changes and close the Microsoft Word document.

Most likely, but you must look to fix the problem at the level of diagnosis, not fire-fight the symptoms away.
Look into the code which utilises
Word
Localise the piece of code which
could cause failure
Find particular solutions to the
found problem
Correct the issue
Don't look to 'auto-click' the dialog away or any other such flakiness, this is a hack.
The code in question would be useful, if not invaluable to providing real help.

I have similar problem dealing with PowerPoint in .Net
the safe-mode message box will show up when I launch it from my program after PowerPoint crashed, which stopped my automatically process
after some investigation into the registry, deleting this
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\PowerPoint\Resiliency (change the Product and Version)
before starting the Office program will avoid the Safe-mode
(This registry key stores the info of last opened file, by deleting this, PowerPoint won't know it was crashed, so it opens normally)

c# .net interop close dialog boxes

After opening a Word document, using .NET interop, a dialog box is created that blocks programmatic editing of the opened file. The user cannot see the winword.exe process and so cannot close the dialog. Is there a way to close a dialog or to prevent them being opened on startup?
I believe it might be the dialog asking first time users to set their name and initials.
Note: I know that it would be nicer to avoid using the interops and am familiar with Aspose products.

See my answer here.
Basically, you need to disable all "alerts", such the dialog that you describe above. Instead of "MSProject", use "Word" of course.