I want to disallow the user of my application from using alt-tab. I'm trying to solve this by using a low level keyboard hook.
Setting it up works perfectly, the callback procedure is triggered when I press the key combination etc. The weird thing that happens is that I can alt-tab out of the application but then alt-tabbing is disabled, completely. I switch applications with the mouse and try alt-tabbing but nothing happens. I switch back to my application and alt-tab again and it switches the application, but only one step. When out of my application the alt-tab isn't working anymore.
I've tried different scenarios, first I thought it had something to do with the debugger in VS2010 but no, running it with out the debugger gives the same results.
Have I completely misunderstood this hook procedure, is it meant to only catch stuff happening when the application isn't in focus?
osman.hpp :
static HHOOK m_hhook;
static LRESULT CALLBACK lowLevelKeyboardProc( int key, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam );
osman.cpp :
HHOOK OSMan::m_hhook;
/*
* pseudo init code
*/
void OSMan::init()
{
m_hHook = SetWindowsHookEx( WH_KEYBOARD_LL, (HOOKPROC)lowLevelKeyboardProc, 0, 0 );
}
LRESULT CALLBACK OSMan::lowLevelKeyboardProc( int key, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT *pkbhs = (KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT *) lParam;
switch (key)
{
case HC_ACTION:
{
if (pkbhs->vkCode == VK_TAB && pkbhs->flags & LLKHF_ALTDOWN)
return 1;
}
default:
break;
}
return CallNextHookEx( m_hHook, key, wParam, lParam);
}
edit:
added code.
If you want to disable alt+tab correctly, you should just register the hotkey via RegisterHotKey(0,0,MOD_ALT,VK_TAB); and then handle (well, more ignore) the message that this generates, this allows you to make it application local, not worry about Windows hook chains and allows you to easily enable or disable it on the fly.
Although for a game, the idTech 4 input handling code has a vast array of the input gems.
You are installing a System Wide hook, that is why you have disabled the use of Alt-TAB on the whole system.
You can't use a WH_KEYBOARD_LL you must use a WH_KEYBOARD hook, and make it process specific.
The params of the SetWindowsHookEx will change if you make your hook process specific.
Here is an overview of the params :
dwThreadId [in]
Type: DWORD
The identifier of the thread with which the hook procedure is to be associated.
If this parameter is zero, the hook procedure is associated with all existing threads running in the same desktop as the calling thread.
PS : in reply to comment :
The hook only is installed after the process got one appropriate event. While hooking onto keyboard messages, you will have to send at least one keyboard message before the hook is installed.
Work Around
Maybe you want to work around this issue by using the ShowWindow function ?
Here is the doc : http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.showwindow
cf : http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/4610/Three-Ways-to-Inject-Your-Code-into-Another-Proces
cf http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644990(v=vs.85).aspx
and
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644959(v=vs.85).aspx#wh_keyboardhook
Related
I am trying to make a program that sits in the background that can ignore mouse clicks - outside of the program.
How do I tell Windows this through c++?
I already made the program recognize the mouse click. Just not how to ignore it.
The reason I need to do this is because my mouse has a flaw where it accidentally double-clicks (or more) when I only click one time.
So basically, when the program register that I click with the mouse, it will let the first click through, but then disable that button (ignoring every following clicks) for ~200 milliseconds.
If possible, I would like to avoid using any external libraries. Only the standard ones that comes with Visual Studio.
Thank you very much for reading!
You can use a low-level mouse hook:
// Variable to store the hook handle
HHOOK miHook;
// This is the hook procedure
LRESULT CALLBACK LowLevelMouseProc(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
if(nCode == HC_ACTION) {
MSLLHOOKSTRUCT &msll = *(reinterpret_cast<MSLLHOOKSTRUCT*>(lParam)); // In there is more context if you need it
if(wParam == WM_LBUTTONDOWN) {
// Do your logic here
if(letsIgnoreThisClick) {
return -1; // This will make the click be ignored
}
}
}
return CallNextHookEx(miHook, nCode, wParam, lParam); // Important! Otherwise other mouse hooks may misbehave
}
// This is how you install the hook
miHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, reinterpret_cast<HOOKPROC>(&LowLevelMouseProc), hInstance, 0);
// And this is how you would remove the hook again
UnhookWindowsHookEx(miHook);
This code example can't be used as-is of course, but has to be adjusted to your needs and the individual parts have to be put in the right locations in your code.
Please also read the remarks section for SetWindowsHookEx. You are probably going to need to create a DLL where your function is located (you can load it from your main code). The hInstance in my example has to be the instance handle of the module which contains the hook procedure. Also you need to pump messages in order for your hook to work correctly!
I am trying to detect when a user alt tabs out of my window. I have tried several messages (WM_ACTIVATE, WM_KILLFOCUS, WM_ACTIVATEAPP, WM_NCACTIVATE, WM_CANCELMODE, and WM_SYSCOMMAND checking for SC_MINIMIZE). But the same problem still occurs. The following happens.
My application is in focus, and I hold down alt and press tab.
The next window is brought forth.
I keep holding down alt and then press tab again, but this time, only tab is recognized and so I end up tabbing in the new window rather than alt tabbing again as is the usual behavior.
I am using a low level keyboard hook, and if I uninstall that this alt tabbing behavior described above works perfectly. I basically want to uninstall the keyboard hook as soon as the user leaves my window in this fashion. As soon as I release alt tab while in another window, my window receives several of the messages I look for and the hook is uninstalled. But when you hold the keys in this manner, it does not work as expected while the hook is installed.
why do you need to remove the keyboard hook? The SetWindowsHook is local to your application and not affect the other apps, therefore it already does nothing if your app doesn't have the focus.
Edit
make sure you call the next hook in your callback with CallNextHookEx to not screw up screen readers
I used the following code and it seems to be catching the focus changes, and I am not getting any problem with regard to holding down ALT or TAB in various combinations. But I didn't thoroughly test it yet.
EDIT: I read your post again and see that your problem is probably an interaction between the two different hooks. So I am also hooking the keyboard in my app, but I am using an Import Address Table hook of DispatchMessage. My hooks don't interact the way yours do, but my solution may not be appropriate for you.
bool AddHookToKeyboardFocusChanges()
{
HHOOK hhookFocusChange = NULL;
hhookFocusChange = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CALLWNDPROC, (HOOKPROC)CallWindowProcHook, NULL, GetCurrentThreadId()); // the last parameter makes it a local, not global hook
if(hhookFocusChange == NULL)
return false;
return true;
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This is the routine that we register to be called on every call to a
// WindowProc in our application; we use it to catch WM_SETFOCUS and
// WM_KILLFOCUS messages that indicate gaining or losing keyboard input focus.
// Unlike keyboard, mouse, paint, and timer messages, the focus messages are not
// posted to the message queue. Instead they are sent directly to WindowProc.
// We must hook them here.
//
LRESULT WINAPI CallWindowProcHook(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
UINT message = ((CWPSTRUCT*)lParam)->message;
switch(message)
{
case WM_ACTIVATE:
OutputDebugString(L"Window activated.\n");
break;
case WM_SETFOCUS:
OutputDebugString(L"Window focused.\n");
break;
case WM_KILLFOCUS:
OutputDebugString(L"Window focus lost.\n");
break;
default:
break;
}
// CallNextHookEx calls the next hook in the chain.
return CallNextHookEx(NULL, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}
For those of you who do not know what I am talking about:
http://www.teamviewer.com/images/presse/quickconnect_en.jpg
Teamviewer overlays that button on all windows to allow you to quickly share a window with someone else. I would like any ideas on implementing something similar -- if you have example code, even better (specifically, the button -- not the sharing). I am interested in C++ and QT... but I would be interested in good solutions in other languages/libraries if there are any.
Thanks.
To draw buttons or other stuff in foreign windows, you need to inject code into the foreign processes.
Check the SetWindowsHookEx method for that:
You most probably want to install a hook for WH_CALLWNDPROCRET and watch out for the WM_NCPAINT message. This would be the right place to draw your button.
However, I'm not really sure, if you can place a window within a Non-Client-Area, so in the worst case, you'd have to paint the button "manually".
Just call this from your main application (or from within a DLL)
SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CALLWNDPROCRET, myCallWndRetProc, hModule, 0);
Note that myCallWndRetProc must reside within a DLL and hModule is the Module-HANDLE for this DLL.
Your myCallWndRetProc could look like:
LRESULT CALLBACK myCallWndRetProc(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
if (nCode == HT_ACTION) {
CWPRETSTRUCT* cwpret = (CWPRETSTRUCT*)lParam;
if (cwpret->message == WM_NCPAINT) {
// The non-client area has just been painted.
// Now it's your turn to draw your buttons or whatever you like
}
}
return CallNextHookEx(0, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}
When starting with your implementation, I'd suggest, you just create a simple dialog application and hook your own process only:
SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CALLWNDPROCRET, myCallWndRetProc, NULL, GetCurrentThreadId());
Installing a global hook injects the DLL into all processes, which makes debugging pretty hard, and your DLL may be write-protected while it's in use.
I was wondering if there is a way to intercept and modify mouse input before it gets to windows?
What I'm wanting to do is intercept mouse motion events, apply some custom scaling and acceleration to the values, and then continue passing them along. I'd need something that can do this before the inputs get to the raw input API or DirectInput.
In order to affect all mouse input, including DirectInput, during logon and the SAS screen, etc., you'll need to load a filter driver into the mouse driver stack.
Other people have done it, for example http://www.maf-soft.de/mafmouse/
There should be a moufiltr sample in the Windows DDK which you can use as a starting point. You will most likely want to use a virtual machine for development since errors in a driver on your development machine could be difficult to recover from.
Have you seen this method of intercepting mouse and keyboard input without having to make a filter driver or hook?
http://oblita.com/Interception.html
There is a LowLevelMouseProc hook procedure that you can use to get information on any mouse input entering the system, although I doubt if you can actually change this information (and the docs are silent on this).
If this fails, GetMsgProc is an alternative that lets you intercept all messages posted to any window. Though this hook does let you modify the message, it's probably too late to have any effect on APIs such as DirectInput.
You could try a windows hook - which are functions you set to receive windows messages before they get passed through to the rest of the system - a CBT hook (for computer based training) is what might get you best results.
I don't know Whether this will work with DirectInput or the other new stuff MS has added to break all the old internal consistency. Its easy to set up though, so try it and see.
As far as I know the best way is to hook to windows message loop, In your case you should pass HWND 0 (If I remember correctly this the HWND of the desktop) so all the messages will pass though your function first.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms633591%28VS.85%29.aspx
More on hooks : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644959%28VS.85%29.aspx
Use it as follows:
m_nOldWindowProc = ::SetWindowLong(0 /I think.../, GWL_WNDPROC, (LPARAM)(WNDPROC)WindowProcCallback);
and the callback:
LRESULT CALLBACK CStubWindow::WindowProcCallback(HWND hwnd,
UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
switch (message)
{
case WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING:
((WINDOWPOS*)lParam)->cx = STATUS_BAR_WIDTH;
((WINDOWPOS*)lParam)->flags = SWP_NOOWNERZORDER | SWP_NOMOVE;
break;
default:
break;
}
return ::CallWindowProc(m_nOldWindowProc, hwnd, message, wParam, lParam);
}
I want to do some processing when a particular dialog is opened but I am not able to find any way to get notification when that dialog is opened.
Is there any way to get notification in application for opening of a particular windows dialog?
The only available information about the dialog is its title and its unique.
The general solution is to use windows hooks, filter to WH_CBT, filter to WM_CREATE, or something like that, get the window text and see if it is the one of your interest.
One more important point: in hook you should use SetWindowLongPtr() to set window process to your own function, that will actually receive WM_CREATE event. In all calls this function should call the original window procedure.
You can also use a CBT Hook to watch window creation messages. You'll have access to the CREATSTRUCT used to create the actual window, eg, the title and class name. You can prevent the window from being created in your hook, modify the size, etc.
EDIT: sorry didn't notice that you don't have the code yourself but only the title. So I think the other posts solution is what you need
The event handling in win32 applications is done via a so called windows procedure which is a callback function with the following signature:
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
This callback gets called by windows every time there is a message for windows which are registered with this callback function. One of the first messages send to a new window is the WM_CREATE message.
If you are creating your windows "by hand" with win32 API, then there should be a static callback function like the one below where you can filter for the WM_CREATE message.
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc( HWND hwnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
switch( message )
{
case WM_CREATE:
// do what ever you want
return 0;
case default:
return DefWndProc( hwnd, message, wParam, lParam );
}
}
If you use MFC dialogs (CDialog) then you can overwrite the function CDialog::OnInitDialog().
OK, the way to do this is to use SetWindowsHookEx(WH_SYSMSGFILTER,...)
You'll be getting a lot more callbacks than you really need. and global hooks are a real drain on system performance (they can force the system to serialize things that would normally run independently)
be sure to read the Remarks, especially this part:
SetWindowsHookEx can be used to inject a DLL into another process. A 32-bit DLL cannot be injected into a 64-bit process, and a 64-bit DLL cannot be injected into a 32-bit process. If an application requires the use of hooks in other processes, it is required that a 32-bit application call SetWindowsHookEx to inject a 32-bit DLL into 32-bit processes, and a 64-bit application call SetWindowsHookEx to inject a 64-bit DLL into 64-bit processes. The 32-bit and 64-bit DLLs must have different names.
Your hook must live in a dll, and the dll will end up loaded into other process's address space, so you won't it won't have access to your procees's address space, you will have to set up some sort of interprocess communication between your hook and your app.
On the whole I'd say this sounds like a really bad idea.