I'm trying to send a key to an application. I tested the Handlewindow value used breakpoints to understand what I'm doing wirong but i cant find a solution. To be more detailed, its a little game and when I activate the chatbar ingame, the key I want to send will be written there, but I want to make it functionaly when I am playing to use the commands. The game doesnt have a guard or some protections.
Here is my code:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool PostMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, int wParam, int lParam);
const uint WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string pName = textBox1.Text;
//Get Processes
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(pName);
//Main part
foreach (Process p in processes)
if (p.ProcessName == (string)pName)
{
PostMessage(p.MainWindowHandle, WM_KEYDOWN, (int)Keys.W, 0);
}
}
Like I said, it can be sent 1000000 times successfully but nothing happens.
Is there another way how I can send keys to an Windows application that works minimized or even hidden? It should be only send to my app.
If i understand correctly, you want to send keys to a game.
In this case i think that the game is not fetching the keys from the Windows Message queue, it is probably reading the keyboard status directly using DirectX or similar ways.
See this similar question:
Send Key Strokes to Games
You can't fake messages like this and expect it to work reliably - all you are doing is sending a message, nothing fancy.
What this means is that if the target program tests for input in a different way (for example by directly checking the key state, reacting to different messages or just using a completely different mechanism) the target program at best may just completely ignore your input and at worst get totally confused.
Use the SendInput function instead (I'm not sure if this exposed as part of the .Net framework or not).
Some interesting blog articles which are fairly relevant:
You can't simulate keyboard input with PostMessage
Simulating input via WM_CHAR messages may fake out the recipient but it won't fake out the input system
Just note that the correct import of PostMessage is:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool PostMessage(HandleRef hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
Sending the keys like you are doing might not work, but you can use spy++ to capture the actual messages that are being posted to the application by windows and use those.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/debugger/introducing-spy-increment?view=vs-2022
Often programmers will react to KeyUp events rather than down; did you try sending WM_KEYUP?
You should be using SendInput to simulate input into another window.
See this blog post for more details.
Related
I've looked around for six hours today in search of a method to complete the task I'm looking to accomplish. However with little luck every method I've tried has come out not working.
So the program I'm working on is a multiboxing application for video games. Essentially I want to have my created application running in the background. The user will check on checkbox's to state which keys they want to be captured, so not every key is being captured. Then while they are playing the main game, the application will send the keys that are checked to the games running in the background.
I've tried global hotkeys however never could get more than one key working. I've also tried to hook keys but for some reason, couldn't get that functional. I also dabbled into sendmessage with little luck there either.
Was just curious if anyone else had some ideas for going about doing this. To give an example of another program that does this same thing would be HotKeyNet, KeyClone, and ISboxer. I know there are more out there but that gives you an idea of what I'm trying to do with my application.
Alright, after quite a bit of research into different methods for sending keystrokes and reading keystrokes. I finally was able to splice to different types of coding together to provide the results I was looking for.
I'm posting up the answer, so anyone that is looking for the answer to this question later down the road has it available to them.
My two references for splicing this code together are the following:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19004/A-Simple-C-Global-Low-Level-Keyboard-Hook
Send combination of keystrokes to background window
I used the global low level hook and postmessage for sending keystrokes to the background application.
So first you will need to follow the instructions from the first
link, to get the starting code working.
Download the working source code from link one, and use the
globalKeyboardHook.cs in your application.
Then in references place the following:
using System.Runtime.InteropServices; //Grabs for your DLLs
using Utilities; //Grabs from the file you added to your application.
Now you will want to place the following code in your class:
globalKeyboardHook gkh = new globalKeyboardHook();
[DllImport("user32.dll")] //Used for sending keystrokes to new window.
public static extern IntPtr PostMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "FindWindow", CharSet = CharSet.Ansi)] //Used to find the window to send keystrokes to.
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string className, string windowName);
Now go ahead place your keystrokes you want to be grabbed this I
found is best in Form1_Loaded:
gkh.HookedKeys.Add(Keys.A);//This collects the A Key.
gkh.HookedKeys.Add(Keys.B);//This collects the B Key.
gkh.HookedKeys.Add(Keys.C);//This collects the C Key.
gkh.KeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(gkh_KeyDown); //Event for pressing the key down.
gkh.KeyUp += new KeyEventHandler(gkh_KeyUp); //Event for the release of key.
After that you will want to go ahead and place in the following in
your code as well:
void gkh_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) //What happens on key release.
{
lstLog.Items.Add("Up\t" + e.KeyCode.ToString());
e.Handled = false; //Setting this to true will cause the global hotkeys to block all outgoing keystrokes.
}
void gkh_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e) //What happens on key press.
{
lstLog.Items.Add("Down\t" + e.KeyCode.ToString());
e.Handled = false;
}
Once that is in place just put this little bit in the gkh_KeyDown to
get your keystrokes to send to another window of your choosing:
const uint WM_KEYDOWN = 0x100;
IntPtr hWnd = FindWindow(null, "Example1"); //Find window Example1 for application.
switch (e.KeyCode)
{
case Keys.A: //Makes it so it only sends that key when it's pressed and no other keys.
if(chkA.Checked == true)
{
PostMessage(hWnd, WM_KEYDOWN, (IntPtr)(Keys.A), IntPtr.Zero); //Sends to key A to new window assigned hWnd which equals Example1.
}
break;
}
}
The code that I have provided is setup so people can use checkbox's to tell the program which keys they want to send over to the second application.
If you have any questions regarding to this post just let me know, and I will do my best to walk you through the process. Hope this helps someone out later down the road.
My suggestion is to go with "mapped memory" (in operating system concepts: shared memory)
First process creates (may be your check state program) creates a mapped memory and writes values to it.
All other game process reads the value from memory map created by first process.
Here is a very nice example regarding how to do it.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd267552(v=vs.110).aspx
I found this script to change the System sound volume and it works. But what are these constant volume codes called and where can I find a full list of these codes that do more things.
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
//Volume codes, or messages, or whatever they are called
const int VOLUME_MUTE = 0x80000;
const int VOLUME_DOWN = 0x90000;
const int VOLUME_UP = 0xA0000;
SendMessage(this.Handle, 0x319, IntPtr.Zero, (IntPtr)VOLUME_UP);
These are AppCommand messages.
0x319 is the Win32 Windows MSG for WM_APPCOMMAND, and the messages are more accurately APPCOMMAND_VOLUME_UP, etc...
AppCommand messages are messages sent to windows, which are handled at a global level and perform certain application functions. These tend to be linked to Keyboard hotkeys and mouse button functions.
Your app gets first crack at processing any such messages, and if you do not handle them then your apps parent does. If that doesn't handle them, then eventually it gets sent to a global message hook to process them. The key point here is that other windows can trap these messages, so it's not a guarantee that sending these messages will accomplish the task. Just like you might have seen where pressing the volume up or down on your keyboard might not always work when certain windows have focus.
You can find the details for all the messages in the Win32 API reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646275(v=vs.85).aspx
I am working on VS 2010 Ultimate. I have created a simple console application about 25-30 rows. So I want in the Main() function simply to simulate pressing "ALT+TAB" in a while cycle. Hoh can I do that - I cant use SendKeys class cause it "Provides methods for sending keystrokes to an application." I want just when I start my console application to simulate 1000 times pressing "ALT+TAB" without attaching it to anny applications. Something like this:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace nagradite
{
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
int i = 1000;
while( i > 0 )
{
// PRESS "ALT+TAB"
i--;
}
}
}
}
what should I type instead of // PRESS "ALT+TAB"
Use "%{TAB}" for Alt+TAB
SendKeys.Send("%{TAB}");
SendKeys.Send("%{TAB} 1000"); //if you want to do same by 1000 times as you stated
Reference http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.sendkeys.send.aspx
I think you can use SendMessage for finding keys you can see http://www.blizzhackers.cc/viewtopic.php?t=396398, your parent window is null (desktop)
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
You can try a Win32 API called SendInput. It allows you to simulate keyboard/mouse input events and does not require a HWND target. However, I don't know if this will actually trigger system-wide keyboard shortcuts such as ALT+TAB.
MSDN - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646310(v=vs.85).aspx
PInvoke.Net - http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.sendinput
I'm trying to extend TextBox control to add watermarking functionality. The example I've found on CodeProject is using imported SendMessage function.
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = false)]
static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, uint wParam, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string lParam);
void SetWatermark()
{
SendMessage(this.Handle, 0x1501, 0, "Sample");
}
I'm wondering why not use protected WndProc instead
void SetWatermark()
{
var m =new Message() { HWnd = this.Handle, Msg = 0x1501, WParam = (IntPtr)0, LParam = Marshal.StringToHGlobalUni("Sample") };
WndProc(ref m);
}
Both seem to work fine. Almost all examples I've seen on internet use SendMessagefunction. Why is that? Isn't WndProc function designed to replace SendMessage?
P.S. I don't know right to convert string to IntPtr and found that Marshal.StringToHGlobalUni works ok. Is it right function to do this?
WndProc does not replace SendMessage, it is the .NET equivalent of WindowProc. WndProc is called by your application's message pump (which receives messages that are sent or posted by SendMessage or PostMessage) to process them. By calling WndProc directly, you by-pass the special message handling that Windows performs, such as bundling WM_PAINT messages, and can potentially cause some nasty problems where messages appear out of the order that they're expected by windows within your application.
As stated in MSDN,
All messages are sent to the WndProc
method after getting filtered through
the PreProcessMessage method.
The WndProc method corresponds exactly
to the Windows WindowProc function.
For more information about processing
Windows messages, see the WindowProc
function documentation in the MSDN
library at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library.
By calling it directly, you deprive the system of a chance to perform preprocessing or any other handling of that message. The .NET framework runs on top of Windows and without sending or posting the message, the underlying system cannot do anything with that message, so you lose out on anything the underlying system might do for you.
I have a window which is hidden and I would like to send a keypress to it. An example of what I'm trying to achieve is an app that will send the key F5 to a web browser which wasn't the active window. The web browser would know to refresh the current page when the F5 keystroke is received.
I would also like to send a combination of keys to an application, e.g. Ctrl+S. One example of this usage could be a timed auto-save feature to use with applications which don't have autosave. This would spare me having to remember to save every 5 mins.
C# is my technology, does this sound realistic?
This CodeProject article shows how to send keystrokes to an external application (with C# source code).
You can use WinApi for this purpose. SendMessage or PostMessage method to send desired message to your application.
Here's C# definition of SendMessage
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage(
int hWnd, // handle to destination window
uint Msg, // message
long wParam, // first message parameter
long lParam // second message parameter
);
and define the message that you want to send like:
public const uint %WM_MESSAGE_HERE% = %value%;
Check PInvoke - great resource containing WinApi method definitions for .NET
This should be possible, look at www.pinvoke.net and search for sendinput, that page should tell you everything you need to know, also how to find the window (look for findwindow)