Finding the window that has focus on it

[sepehr]

is there any way to find which window has focus on it?

[jmcilhinney]

Do you mean within your app or from any application? If it's the latter then you would need to use the Windows API, specifically the GetForegroundWindow function. That will give you the window's handle, which you can then use in other API calls. Search the web and you'll certainly find examples.

[sepehr]

...
and is it possible to get that programs executable path?

[jmcilhinney]

There may well be a way but I'm not aware of it.

[morethantoast]

...
and is it possible to get that programs executable path?

if you figure out the name of the process you could do something like this:

        Dim pList() As Process
        Dim str As String = "firefox"
        pList = Process.GetProcesses
        For Each p As Process In pList

            If p.ProcessName = str Then
                MsgBox(p.MainModule.FileName) 'exe path
            End If
        Next

[sepehr]

and is there any way to get the process name that has the focus on it?

[morethantoast]

Dim processId As Integer
GetWindowThreadProcessId(GetForegroundWindow(), processId)
Dim processName as string = process.GetProcessById(processId).processName

use the processName in the code i posted earlier
here are the functions:

    Private Declare Function GetForegroundWindow Lib "user32.dll" () As Int32
    Private Declare Function GetWindowThreadProcessId Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, ByRef lpdwProcessId As IntPtr) As IntPtr

[sepehr]

ok it works. from where did you get the information about declares in that code?

[TTn]

GetGUIThreadInfo can get all focus related info, including the caret.

    Const NULL As Int32 = 0
    Private Declare Function apiGetGUIThreadInfo Lib "user32" Alias "GetGUIThreadInfo" (ByVal dwthreadid As Int32, ByRef lpguithreadinfo As GUITHREADINFO) As Int32
    Private Declare Function apiGetWindowThreadId Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowThreadProcessId" (ByVal hWnd As Int32, ByVal lpdwProcessId As Int32) As Int32
    Private Declare Function apiGetWindowProcessId Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowThreadProcessId" (ByVal hWnd As Int32, ByRef lpdwProcessId As Int32) As Int32

    Private Function GetForegroundInfo() As GUITHREADINFO
        GetForegroundInfo.cbSize = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(GetForegroundInfo)
        apiGetGUIThreadInfo(apiGetWindowThreadId(NULL, 0), GetForegroundInfo)
    End Function
    Private Structure GUITHREADINFO
        Public cbSize, flags As Int32
        Public hwndActive, hwndFocus, hwndCapture, hwndMenuOwner, hwndMoveSize, hwndCaret As IntPtr
        Public rcCaret As RECT
    End Structure
    Private Structure RECT
        Public rLeft, rTop, rRight, rBottom As Int32
    End Structure

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        ' System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000)'Give you a moment to put focus somewhere
        Dim g As GUITHREADINFO = GetForegroundInfo()
        MessageBox.Show("ActiveForeground:" & g.hwndActive.ToInt32.ToString & "  Focus:" & g.hwndFocus.ToInt32.ToString & "  Capture:" & g.hwndCapture.ToInt32.ToString & "  Caret:" & g.hwndCaret.ToInt32.ToString & "  MenuOwner:" & g.hwndMenuOwner.ToInt32.ToString & "  MoveSize:" & g.hwndMoveSize.ToInt32.ToString & "  CaretLeft:" & g.rcCaret.rLeft & "  CaretRight:" & g.rcCaret.rRight & "  CaretTop:" & g.rcCaret.rTop & "  CaretBottom:" & g.rcCaret.rBottom, "Window Focus information", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
    End Sub

[sepehr]

my app can not access the 64 bit programs...
is there any 64 bit version of visual studio?!