Alternative to GetWindowModuleFileName to get other processes ApplicationFileName? - c#

In order to get the application name of the foreground Window (or the name of application file) I want to use GetActiveWindow with GetWindowModuleFileName.
I found a similar question relating to GetWindowText here
That implementation of GetWindowText works fine, but GetWindowModuleFileName only returns a value for visual studio (when I click inside the devenv) for all other applications it stays blank.
Any hint how I can find out what goes wrong? Might this have to do with permission/security of my application querying the applicationfilename of another process?
EDIT: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=228469 looks like this doesn't work under Win >=XP
Any alternatives how to get the application file name?

In order to get the application name of the foreground Window (or the name of application file) I want to use GetActiveWindow with GetWindowModuleFileName.
... querying the applicationfilename of another process ...
In my opinion your problem with use of GetActiveWindow() function. It is used for gathering information from the calling thread/process only. If calling thread is inactive GetActiveWindow return 0;
From MSDN:
GetActiveWindow Retrieves the window handle to the active window attached to the calling thread's message queue.
Try to use GetForegroundWindow() function instead of GetActiveWindow()

By chance do you have UAC turned off?
Starting with Vista, if your code touches an HWND in another process, your process needs to be run at the same privilege level.
In other words, if the window is hosted in a process running as administrator, your app must also run as administrator.

I found a workaround using this:
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint lpdwProcessId);
IntPtr handle = IntPtr.Zero;
handle = GetForegroundWindow();
uint processId;
if (GetWindowThreadProcessId(handle, out processId) > 0)
{
Console.WriteLine(Process.GetProcessById((int)processId).MainModule.FileName);
}

Related

Is there a windows api function to determine if the hidden window is closed or not using its handle?

I have a handle(IntPtr) to a hidden window, which terminates/quits automatically after a certain amount of time, say after a mintue. Is there a function in windows api to determine if the hidden window is has terminated or not using its handle?
Please note that the window is hidden using ShowWindow external function with 0 as the value of parameter nCmdShow.
The IsWindow function should do what you asked for. However you should use caution: window handles can be recycled so your window may be closed and its handle assigned to some other new window.
I guess you could check with IsWindow if it still exists. See MSDN for further information.
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
static extern bool IsWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
If the window is being just hidden, using ShowWindow(0) (ie SW_HIDE), then likely the HWND will still be valid, so IsWindow() will return TRUE. To check for a valid HWND being visible vs invisible, use the IsWindowVisible USER32 call.
Depending on the target application, you might want to use this in addition to IsWindow(), plus checking the pid and class to guard against HWND recycling.

What does Process.Responding really mean?

I am shelling out to do some work and one of the requirements is to kill the process if it is hung.
My first thought was Process.Responding, however, I am not sure what it really means.
Is it the same thing as when Win7 adds a (Not Responding) to the window title of an application? On my machine, this happens even when MS Word tries to open a file from a really slow remote share.
What are the conditions for having a Process.Responding be false?
Under the hood, when you check the Process.Responding property, the Windows function SendMessageTimeout is called.
This function basically sends a message to the main window of another process and checks whether the window is accepting the message within a timeout of 5000 ms (Therefore checking this property on a console application has no effect).
If you want to use a custom timeout you can just as well call the SendMessageTimeout function yourself:
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessageTimeout(
HandleRef hWnd,
int msg,
IntPtr wParam,
IntPtr lParam,
int flags,
int timeout,
out IntPtr pdwResult);
const int SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG = 2;
public bool RespondingWithinMs(Process process, int timeoutMs)
{
IntPtr ptr2;
return SendMessageTimeout(
new HandleRef(process, process.MainWindowHandle),
0,
IntPtr.Zero,
IntPtr.Zero,
SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG,
timeoutMs,
out ptr2) != IntPtr.Zero;
}
Responding means the application window is responding to the user. the process should have a MainWindowHandle from msdn:
true if the user interface of the associated process is responding to the system; otherwise, false.
If the process does not have a MainWindowHandle, this property returns true.
You can modify the timeout used by application.Responding check this.
From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.process.responding.aspx
If a process has a user interface, the Responding property contacts the user interface to determine whether the process is responding to user input. If the interface does not respond immediately, the Responding property returns false. Use this property to determine whether the interface of the associated process has stopped responding.

How to bring a window foreground using c#?

I am trying to bring a window foreground. I am using this code. But its not working. Could someone please help?
ShowWindowAsync(wnd.hWnd, SW_SHOW);
SetForegroundWindow(wnd.hWnd);
// Code from Karl E. Peterson, www.mvps.org/vb/sample.htm
// Converted to Delphi by Ray Lischner
// Published in The Delphi Magazine 55, page 16
// Converted to C# by Kevin Gale
IntPtr foregroundWindow = GetForegroundWindow();
IntPtr Dummy = IntPtr.Zero;
uint foregroundThreadId = GetWindowThreadProcessId(foregroundWindow, Dummy);
uint thisThreadId = GetWindowThreadProcessId(wnd.hWnd, Dummy);
if (AttachThreadInput(thisThreadId, foregroundThreadId, true))
{
BringWindowToTop(wnd.hWnd); // IE 5.5 related hack
SetForegroundWindow(wnd.hWnd);
AttachThreadInput(thisThreadId, foregroundThreadId, false);
}
if (GetForegroundWindow() != wnd.hWnd)
{
// Code by Daniel P. Stasinski
// Converted to C# by Kevin Gale
IntPtr Timeout = IntPtr.Zero;
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT, 0, Timeout, 0);
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT, 0, Dummy, SPIF_SENDCHANGE);
BringWindowToTop(wnd.hWnd); // IE 5.5 related hack
SetForegroundWindow(wnd.hWnd);
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT, 0, Timeout, SPIF_SENDCHANGE);
}
Code Explained
Making a window the foreground window
requires more than just calling the
SetForegroundWindow API. You must
first determine the foreground thread
and attach it to your window, using
AttachThreadInput, then call
SetForegroundWindow. That way they can
share input states.
First I call GetForegroundWindow to
get the handle of the current
foreground window. Then a few calls to
GetWindowThreadProcessId retrieve the
threads associated with the current
foreground window and the window I
want to bring to the foreground. If
these threads are the same a simple
call to SetForegroundWindow is all
that is necessary. Otherwise, the
foreground thread is attached to the
window that I am bringing to the front
and detached from what was the current
foreground window. The
AttachThreadInput API handles this.
Content Taken from here
Thanks.
I've used this method before:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("processname");
SetForegroundWindow(processes[0].MainWindowHandle);
More information: http://pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.SetForegroundWindow
This code restores and set focus to a window:
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
static extern int SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
internal static extern bool SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, Int32 wParam, Int32 lParam);
static Int32 WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
static Int32 SC_RESTORE = 0xF120;
And use it like this:
var proc = Process.GetProcessesByName("YourProgram").FirstOrDefault();
if (proc != null)
{
var pointer = proc.MainWindowHandle;
SetForegroundWindow(pointer);
SendMessage(pointer, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_RESTORE, 0);
}
In order for SetForegroundWindow to work consistently, you have to meet a few criteria. The first is your process that would run the command must be in the foreground. Only foreground process can make another process foreground. In order to make your process foreground first, you have to bring the main window to the front, if it is not. You minimise it first and then SetForegroundWindow it, to make it foreground. Now find the target process and bring it to the front
The steps are
Minimise the current window
SetForegroundWindow it
Find the target process
SetForegroundWindow it
I've got an example, though it's a slightly different use case.
You should use SetForegroundWindow. Also it may be interesting for you C# Force Form Focus
I'll be brief: Form.BringToFront()
As of Windows 7 these features dont behave quite so well. If there is an application such as Excel in front of the application you want to bring to the front then Windows 7 blocks this and flashes the window. You can set a registry timeout setting ForegroundLockTimeout=0 in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop but these is known as stealing focus. To set the behaviour of how XP "should" behave and will behave in Windows 7 by default you can create/set the value to 0x00030D40 (200000ms).
I'd like to know what is the preferred solution for trusted Windows applications. eg. If I trust application B to take focus when I double click something in Application A, and some other app is obscuring the window of Application B.

How to prevent a window from opening from another application?

I will prevent a window from iTunes to be opened.
I googled a lot but can't find an iTunes library that allows me to control such things, so I think I must get back to basics and close it after it opens, but how?
I think:
Tick a timer every 500 ms
Check if the window handle is opened
Close it
Is that possible?
How can I recognize a window from this application on other computers (I will give away my application)?
Language is C#.Net 2.0.
Yes it's an option to find the window and close it. However the user will still see it.
You can do the PInvoke method of FindWindow or use the C# ones (prefer those)
using System.Diagnostics;
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("notepad");
foreach (Process p in processes)
{
p.CloseMainWindow();
}
From here
This is only for closing the top application, I dont know if you can find the subwindow with Process.
I know you can with PInvoke, see example here
[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
or
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint="FindWindow", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr FindWindowByCaption(IntPtr ZeroOnly, string lpWindowName);
Sure there are ways to do this, an approach I used before was based on the win32APIs, you'll want to look at the following:
FindWindow
SendMessage
In short you can use the timer, and when it fires use FindWindow (either using the window title bar, or the application "class") to get the handle, once you have that you SendMessage to the window of at least a WM_CLOSE or WM_DESTROY

.Net Console Application that Doesn't Bring up a Console

I have a console application I'm using to run scheduled jobs through windows scheduler. All the communication to/from the application is in email, event logging, database logs. Is there any way I can suppress the console window from coming up?
Sure. Build it as a winforms app and never show your form.
Just be careful, because then it's not really a console app anymore, and there are some environments where you won't be able to use it.
Borrowed from MSDN (link text):
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
...
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName,string lpWindowName);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
...
//Sometimes System.Windows.Forms.Application.ExecutablePath works for the caption depending on the system you are running under.
IntPtr hWnd = FindWindow(null, "Your console windows caption"); //put your console window caption here
if(hWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
{
//Hide the window
ShowWindow(hWnd, 0); // 0 = SW_HIDE
}
if(hWnd != IntPtr.Zero)
{
//Show window again
ShowWindow(hWnd, 1); //1 = SW_SHOWNORMA
}
It's a hack, but the following blog post describes how you can hide the console window:
http://expsharing.blogspot.com/2008/03/hideshow-console-window-in-net-black.html
Schedule the task to run as a different user than your account and you won't get a window popping up . . .
Simply configure the Scheduled Task as "Run whether user is logged on or not".
Why don't you make the application a Windows Service?

Categories