[RESOLVED] Detecting Window Bounds of a Program?

[Clemeit]

So I can't find anything like this anywhere and was beginning to wonder if it was even possible.

Similar to the way many screen recording programs allow you to select the window you would like to record, I need a program to find the bounds of say a NotePad program (or any other program) that I mouse over or select some other way. So I mouse over NotePad (or select it from a list of opened programs) and the program will highlight NotePad's bounds.

Sorry for the poor explanation, hope it made sense.

Is it possible? How?

[BenJones]

well from an old VB6 way I used to use Findwindow then you can get the windowrect

http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.findwindow
Window Rect
http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/....getwindowrect

hope that gets you started,

[Clemeit]

Is this the only way? I'm not super keen on using code that I don't recognize, still kinda new to the advanced features of VB. And from what I saw, those only show how to set it up, but didn't give examples on how to actually use it.

[dunfiddlin]

If you want to do anything with programs that are not under the control of your program then, yes, it's the only way. It's not advanced features of VB but basic nuts and bolts Windows operating system code. I'm still not clear in my head what it is that you actually want to do. If a window is active why does it need highlighting? Or were you going for framing a hidden application (even more complicated!)?

[Clemeit]

I'm still not clear in my head what it is that you actually want to do. If a window is active why does it need highlighting? Or were you going for framing a hidden application (even more complicated!)?

Ok so basically I want to be able to put a frame around an open program. This would however require the programs position on the screen, and its height and width. I don't know how to get a programs location or height and width with visual basic.

More specifically, I would get the programs height / width / location on the screen, then use an automated mouse movement/clicker and automated SendKeys program to run a series of pre-programmed operations. This is for a gaming bot I made a while back, however rather than manually selecting the program windows width height and location on the screen, I wanted to know if it could be done automatically.

[Clemeit]

So I guess I'm having a little more luck.
I found a way to retrieve information about the process using the code I used for a 'Task Manager' program I made a while back:

For Each p As Process In Process.GetProcesses
       Try
              If p.MainWindowTitle = TextBox1.Text Then                                 'TEXTBOX1 IS THE WINDOW NAME OF THE PROGRAM I SELECTED
                     MsgBox(p.ProcessName & ": " & p.StartInfo.WindowStyle)
              End If
       Catch ex As Exception
       End Try
Next

So this code returns in a message box the WindowStyle of the program selected, however I have found nothing to do with p.StartInfo.WindowSize or something along those lines.

Anyone else use Process.GetProcesses before and know anything more about getting information of a program?

[Joacim Andersson]

I'm not aware of any managed calls you can make to get the size of the external window, I might be wrong but I think you must go the PInvoke way.

  Private Declare Function GetWindowRect Lib "User32.dll" (handle As Integer, ByRef rect As RECT) As Integer

  <System.Runtime.InteropServices.StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)>
  Private Structure RECT
    Public Left As Integer
    Public Top As Integer
    Public Right As Integer
    Public Bottom As Integer
  End Structure

Once you have the above declared you can use the process class in a similar fashion you showed above.

    For Each p As Process In Process.GetProcesses
      If p.MainWindowTitle = "Untitled - Notepad" Then
        Dim r As RECT
        GetWindowRect(p.MainWindowHandle.ToInt32, r)
        MessageBox.Show(String.Format("Notepad at position {0}, {1} Size: {2}x{3}", r.Left, r.Top, r.Right - r.Left, r.Bottom - r.Top))
      End If
    Next

You should obviously add some error handling but this is the bare bone of it.

[Clemeit]

Wow that did it! HUGE thanks.

Been trying to do something like this for a very long time, guess it was right under my nose.

Thanks a ton to everyone for the help!!