C#•4y ago

.NET Program that runs in the background [Answered]

How would I make an .exe program in c# .NET that runs in the background (It will have a tray icon instead). It will be used for capturing certain hotkey presses

EEzlanding How would I make an .exe program in c# .NET that runs in the background (It will...

Auger•9/5/22, 3:26 AM

What does it do?
And is the tray icon required (may significantly increase complexity)?

AAuger What does it do? And is the tray icon required (may significantly increase compl...

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 3:33 AM

The program will help me copy and paste things easily. It will be set up to capture a set of hotkeys for example CMD+G+1-9 (I need help figuring out how to recognize the inputs) and for each number will store highlighted text (again something that I need help with) and will have an associated paste function. This project is very non-concrete and I’m still in the research phase so I may scrap it if this is too hard to do. Another idea would be when CMD+c is pressed, it use the next keystroke (1-9) to store the data copied from CMD+c. It would be much, much easier to just make it a vscode extension, but before I resort to that I would like to see if I could make something that works on other programs like VS too. The tray icon is not required at all and just something to easily kill the program. If it will make it too complex, I don’t have to include it

Auger•9/5/22, 3:35 AM

Ah, that actually clarifies it a good amount. I was initially thinking of a Worker Services app, but that no longer seems appropriate since those have some limitations

Auger•9/5/22, 3:36 AM

You could make an invisible WPF app potentially, since that should let you interact with tray icons and the clipboard

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 3:37 AM

That sounds like a good idea (especially because I’ve worked with wpf before). How would I have a WPF app the doesn’t have any content

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 3:38 AM

Itbwould also be nice if it runs in the background/doesn’t have a tab on my pc

Auger•9/5/22, 3:42 AM

For the tray icon you can use the

Hardcodet.Wpf.TaskbarNotification

Hardcodet.Wpf.TaskbarNotification

nuget. That's what I use

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 3:44 AM

Auger•9/5/22, 3:44 AM

In the App xaml you can do something like this

Auger•9/5/22, 3:45 AM

Some of those tags may not be required. I did something similar for a notification popup app

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 3:46 AM

Thanks

EEzlanding The program will help me copy and paste things easily. It will be set up to capt...

Jester•9/5/22, 11:36 AM

you can PInvoke the

RegisterHotKey

RegisterHotKey

function i think that should work

Jester•9/5/22, 11:47 AM

i see you said in another thread you didnt get it to work?

Angius•9/5/22, 1:27 PM

I just use

Win + V

Win + V

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 2:42 PM

So I have copying selected text working and registering hotkeys with the RegisterHotKey function, but I would have to make 10 RegisterHotKey functions, so Is there a better way to do it? (maybe register if any of the ALT+0-9 keys pressed with a value signifying which one it is)

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 2:58 PM

like some way to get a general 0-9 key as the last param of RegisterHotKey and read it using HwndHook (((int)lParam >> 16) & 0xFFFF)

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:13 PM

@The Court Jester ^

Jester•9/5/22, 4:14 PM

@Ezlanding you could use global raw input, then you get all the key presses

Jester•9/5/22, 4:14 PM

basically a keylogger

Jester•9/5/22, 4:15 PM

but its a lot of work to the the interop for that yourself

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:15 PM

Can you share a Microsoft docs page on it?

Jester•9/5/22, 4:15 PM

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/inputdev/about-raw-input

Raw Input Overview - Win32 apps

This topic discusses user-input from devices such as joysticks, touch screens, and microphones.

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:16 PM

Thanks

Jester•9/5/22, 4:16 PM

@Ezlanding i can give you some c# code i wrote for this

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:17 PM

That would be good

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:17 PM

Thanks

Jester•9/5/22, 4:18 PM

private static unsafe void RegisterForGlobalRawKeyboardInput(HWND target_window_handle)
    {
        const ushort HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC = 1;
        const ushort HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD = 6;
        const int FALSE = 0;

        var rawInputDevice = new RAWINPUTDEVICE
        {
            usUsagePage = HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC,
            usUsage = HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD,
            dwFlags = RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_INPUTSINK | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOLEGACY | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOHOTKEYS,
            hwndTarget = target_window_handle
        };

        if (RegisterRawInputDevices(&rawInputDevice, 1, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTDEVICE)).Value is FALSE) { throw ... }
    }

    private static unsafe void WriteRawInputToBuffer(RAWINPUT* out_raw_input, LPARAM l)
    {
        const uint ERROR = unchecked((uint)-1);

        var rawInputHandle = (HRAWINPUT)l.Value;
        var size = (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUT);
        if (GetRawInputData(rawInputHandle, RAW_INPUT_DATA_COMMAND_FLAGS.RID_INPUT, out_raw_input, &size, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTHEADER)) is ERROR) { throw ... }
    }

private static unsafe void RegisterForGlobalRawKeyboardInput(HWND target_window_handle)
    {
        const ushort HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC = 1;
        const ushort HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD = 6;
        const int FALSE = 0;

        var rawInputDevice = new RAWINPUTDEVICE
        {
            usUsagePage = HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC,
            usUsage = HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD,
            dwFlags = RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_INPUTSINK | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOLEGACY | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOHOTKEYS,
            hwndTarget = target_window_handle
        };

        if (RegisterRawInputDevices(&rawInputDevice, 1, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTDEVICE)).Value is FALSE) { throw ... }
    }

    private static unsafe void WriteRawInputToBuffer(RAWINPUT* out_raw_input, LPARAM l)
    {
        const uint ERROR = unchecked((uint)-1);

        var rawInputHandle = (HRAWINPUT)l.Value;
        var size = (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUT);
        if (GetRawInputData(rawInputHandle, RAW_INPUT_DATA_COMMAND_FLAGS.RID_INPUT, out_raw_input, &size, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTHEADER)) is ERROR) { throw ... }
    }

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:18 PM

Thanks

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:18 PM

What’s the unsafe modifier?

Jester•9/5/22, 4:19 PM

im using pointers so the code is "unsafe"

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:19 PM

Jester•9/5/22, 4:19 PM

RAWINPUT*

RAWINPUT*

has to point to a struct on the stack or a pinned / fixed array

Jester•9/5/22, 4:20 PM

i use the CsWin32 nuget package to do the interop for me, or you could use TerraFX

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:21 PM

So this writes the currently pressed to key to out_raw_input?

Jester•9/5/22, 4:21 PM

yes

Jester•9/5/22, 4:21 PM

you call

WriteRawInputToBuffer

WriteRawInputToBuffer

on the

WM_INPUT

WM_INPUT

event

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 4:22 PM

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 10:40 PM

@The Court Jester I am getting some errors like

The type or namespace name 'RAWINPUTHEADER' could not be found

The type or namespace name 'RAWINPUTHEADER' could not be found

also how excacly do I use this function? will it block the character or only capture the input?

EEzlanding @The Court Jester I am getting some errors like `The type or namespace name 'RAW...

Jester•9/5/22, 10:42 PM

it doesnt block the keys from reaching where they are going

Jester•9/5/22, 10:42 PM

i cant help much rn

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 10:42 PM

that may be a little bit of a dealbreaker as it will overwrite the selected text

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 10:43 PM

is it ok to have 14 registerhotkey functions?

Jester•9/5/22, 10:43 PM

its not possible to block key input or at least not easely

EEzlanding is it ok to have 14 registerhotkey functions?

Jester•9/5/22, 10:43 PM

i dont think it matters

EzlandingOP•9/5/22, 10:43 PM

k then Ill use a whole bunch of registerhotkeys

AccordAPP•9/6/22, 6:44 AM

This post has been marked as answered!

private static unsafe void RegisterForGlobalRawKeyboardInput(HWND target_window_handle) { const ushort HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC = 1; const ushort HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD = 6; const int FALSE = 0; var rawInputDevice = new RAWINPUTDEVICE { usUsagePage = HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC, usUsage = HID_USAGE_GENERIC_KEYBOARD, dwFlags = RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_INPUTSINK | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOLEGACY | RAWINPUTDEVICE_FLAGS.RIDEV_NOHOTKEYS, hwndTarget = target_window_handle }; if (RegisterRawInputDevices(&rawInputDevice, 1, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTDEVICE)).Value is FALSE) { throw ... } } private static unsafe void WriteRawInputToBuffer(RAWINPUT* out_raw_input, LPARAM l) { const uint ERROR = unchecked((uint)-1); var rawInputHandle = (HRAWINPUT)l.Value; var size = (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUT); if (GetRawInputData(rawInputHandle, RAW_INPUT_DATA_COMMAND_FLAGS.RID_INPUT, out_raw_input, &size, (uint)sizeof(RAWINPUTHEADER)) is ERROR) { throw ... } }