Boring background:
I have been working with UltraVNC to control some PC's at work and it does the job great but in order to simplify things I created a program that interfaces with it in C#. Basically I take advantage of the commands the viewer offers to connect, control, watch or transmit to each PC.
Problem is anyone can access the PC's since it has one main account (no domain controller). I need everyone to sign for the PC before they can use it, so to make my job easier I open each PC and block the inputs + blank the screen that way there obligated to sign before use.
Opening each pc and press the block button can be hassle especial when you’re helping someone and a user leaves, others come (btw I work at an electronic library). UltraVNC doesn’t have a command for this; it’s been requested but I don’t think it’s much of a priority for them and the code seems very intimidating for a novice like me so I thought I could try a hack to get what I want.
Problem: I want to “click” a button in a program I use, from an application that I am building in c#. I can currently use the process class to get the handle and identify the specific window I want to use but I have no way to find the button handle which I read is what I need. I found stuff about using findwindow and sendkeys for this but I don’t see how that’ll work unless the button had a keystroke assigned to it which it doesn’t.
So can anyone point me in the right direction?
Why not use something like Eficium Cybercafe SurfShop to achieve what you want? After teh user finished you log the session out, and before someone can log in, they have to sign in.
Related
Recently, a lot of people in my house have been going on my computer when I wasn't there and I want to make sure that I know what they have been on, for the sake of privacy. I had the idea of making a keylogger that I could use to see what they have been doing on my computer. The keylogger itself (as in a program that records key strokes) I could make, but I have another idea in mind that I'm not sure is possible.
My idea is basically, like a keylogger, something that compiles a list, or log, of the activities of the user, but to a greater extent. I was wondering if it would be possible to document the actions of the user to the extent that every element of the screen they clicked on would be documented. In a web browser, I'm sure there would be a way to do this as all of the information (ids) of the elements of the page can be collected by inspecting the elements (looking at the code). As for general use of the computer, I'm not so sure.
In simpler terms, I want to make a program that would record the users actions in a log as shown below.
14:17: User clicked Windows Start Button
14:17: User searched for 'Chrome' in search engine
14:17: User opened 'Chrome'
14:18: User clicked URL address bar
14:18: User searched for 'stackoverflow.com'
14:18: User clicked 'Login' button on 'stackoverflow.com'
I'm not an expert by any means and only have a school-level knowledge of programming, but I want to know if it would be possible to create something like this. I want the program to be able to collect all of these major actions so that I can compile them within a hidden text document. I'm not sure if these elements could be identified by a program but if anyone has any idea how I would do something like this or indeed if I could do something like this, by all means, message me on here. I would be EXTREMELY grateful!
P.S - This is my first post on here, go easy on me, aha.
With .NET code you will definitely be able to get window positions of other applications (for example google chrome).
For example with the following library: https://github.com/DataDink/WindowScrape
Furthermore you should be able to track keyboard inputs and mouse-clicks of the user on the desktop (which position he clicked on). I think the evualuation of the mouse-clicks will be up to you ("user clicked on url-bar in chrome").
Just a personal hint from me: Doing something like that without informing the person using the PC you will be heavily punished. Think about it twice.
This is related to my other question.
I used the OnStructureChanged event to detect that the 'Help' window popped up in the 3rd party application that my application is writing data to. I need my application to pause while the end user resolves the data issue in the 3rd party application, then I need my application to resume once the end user closes the 'Help' window. (Either I need to detect that the 'Help' window was closed or I need to display a message box and use the DialogResult to trigger my application to resume).
I've never encountered something like this before. I don't know if it's possible to do what I want to do. If it is possible, I don't know where to start.
Advice?
UPDATES:
I have only used Threading once before and I think it was a fairly "easy peasy" usage, I pulled it off without much effort, considering I'd never used Threading before. I'm playing around with Threading for this issue right now. There's a good chance I've implemented it incorrectly, but my app isn't functioning correctly anymore...I don't know if I'm even playing with the correct tool.
I had to just keep moving with the project - deadlines, you know...
I ended up using UI Automation to detect the "Help" window, then I showed a message box giving instructions to the end user. I check the MessageBox's DialogResult and continue processing based on that. It might not be the "best" way to skin the cat, but I'm a noob and I have a deadline, so I did what I needed to do to keep moving.
I would like to record the actions of a user when they are using the base Operating System with my application open.
For example, Clicked Start, Clicked All Programs, Clicked Microsoft Office, Clicked Microsoft Word....
Can anyone suggest a sensible method to achieve this?
The idea is that the user's actions are only recorded when my application is open, its meant to be an alternative to the Microsoft recorder. It creates a written procedure that can be sent to a customer service department.
I guess you should ask yourself if your users will appreciate this! Maybe they care about their privacy.
Anyway you can do it using hooks (I think you're writing for Windows). Same task as a macro recorder.
If you are trying to do that, why not just use an existing program. We used AutoHotkey at my last job to do this for creating UI testing code.
You could ask the user to install AutoHotkey and have them record the script. It can then be sent to you. You can run the script yourself (although you may have to tweak the screen resolution and things like that), and see what was happening.
EDIT:
Another idea is have the user record a screen cast and send that to you. It might make it easier to debug.
I didn't know what Microsoft Recorder was, thought it was the sound recorder, didn't realize there is a Microsoft Problem Recorder bundled in Win7, which does the whole screen cast recording.
Is it possible to write a service program that would catch an event of someone trying to take a screen capture? Not that of pressing a printscreen button or any other key combination, though, but of the event itself, even if it is done by some external tool?
You can't realistically, because anyone could write a simple application that can take a screenshot.
The command being, GetDC(NULL) (msdn GetDC).
Hooking this function also wouldn't work since apps can make use of this for legitimate reasons so you'd have to try and filter out false positives.
Also, you've only prevented one class of problem, what if the user emails the file to someone? What if the user copies the text rather than uses a screen shot? What if the user takes a photo using their mobile phone?
If you have sensitive information that must be protected the only real option is to educate users and/or restrict their access. E.g. machines with sensitive information are not connected to a public network, USB drives are disabled and user's are not allowed to bring anything with a camera or data storage near the machines.
If it's just to avoid silly mistakes, then you could hook the keyboard and look for the print screen key. This however will not detect applications (such as Snipping Tool).
This could be done via a clentscript and using AJAX to send a message back to your servers, however you cannot guarantee the user wont have javascript turned off, or the user gets around this by running through a proxy or vm environment.
In short you could do this but there is no way to 100% guarantee its effectiveness.
I've been teaching myself how to use messages with Window's APIs, and have actually been doing very well learning them. Problem is, I can't figure out how to receive a message from another application to start code within mine.
Essentially, what I want to do is allow others using a commercial application to click the save button (on the commercial application), and have my application stop the save message, prompt the user, and from that either cancel the save to allow them to continue, or allow the save (which I know how to do now through messages).
I just need to know how to catch a message, and stop it. If anyone can point me to an API call, or function, or just documentation that may help, please do.
Check out Detours by Microsoft Research. It's possible, but not simple. Also, look into how client-side game cheats are performed. I will not link any of them here, but they are out there. That's essentially what you want to do.
I think you'll need to attach your own application to the running process the same way a debugger would... Unless the commercial application has a custom method of plugging into their architecture to do this.
The next question is... do you want to proceed down this path.