How to get process name and title of the top window on Windows / C#

Question

As in the topic... or better - how to get this information from events when the top window changes?

Solution 1

Thanks for hints. So I should use P/Invoke anyhow. Here is the complete code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace CuckooCoach
{
    class Monitor
    {
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern int GetWindowTextLength(IntPtr hWnd);

        //  int GetWindowText(
        //      __in   HWND hWnd,
        //      __out  LPTSTR lpString,
        //      __in   int nMaxCount
        //  );
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder lpString, int nMaxCount);

        //  DWORD GetWindowThreadProcessId(
        //      __in   HWND hWnd,
        //      __out  LPDWORD lpdwProcessId
        //  );
        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint lpdwProcessId);

        //HANDLE WINAPI OpenProcess(
        //  __in  DWORD dwDesiredAccess,
        //  __in  BOOL bInheritHandle,
        //  __in  DWORD dwProcessId
        //);
        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        private static extern IntPtr OpenProcess(uint dwDesiredAccess, bool bInheritHandle, uint dwProcessId);

        [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
        private static extern bool CloseHandle(IntPtr handle);

        //  DWORD WINAPI GetModuleBaseName(
        //      __in      HANDLE hProcess,
        //      __in_opt  HMODULE hModule,
        //      __out     LPTSTR lpBaseName,
        //      __in      DWORD nSize
        //  );
        [DllImport("psapi.dll")]
        private static extern uint GetModuleBaseName(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hModule, StringBuilder lpFileName, int nSize);

        //  DWORD WINAPI GetModuleFileNameEx(
        //      __in      HANDLE hProcess,
        //      __in_opt  HMODULE hModule,
        //      __out     LPTSTR lpFilename,
        //      __in      DWORD nSize
        //  );
        [DllImport("psapi.dll")]
        private static extern uint GetModuleFileNameEx(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hModule, StringBuilder lpFileName, int nSize);

        public static string GetTopWindowText()
        {
            IntPtr hWnd = GetForegroundWindow();
            int length = GetWindowTextLength(hWnd);
            StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder(length + 1);
            GetWindowText(hWnd, text, text.Capacity);
            return text.ToString();
        }

        public static string GetTopWindowName()
        {
            IntPtr hWnd = GetForegroundWindow();
            uint lpdwProcessId;
            GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWnd, out lpdwProcessId);

            IntPtr hProcess = OpenProcess(0x0410, false, lpdwProcessId);

            StringBuilder text = new StringBuilder(1000);
            //GetModuleBaseName(hProcess, IntPtr.Zero, text, text.Capacity);
            GetModuleFileNameEx(hProcess, IntPtr.Zero, text, text.Capacity);

            CloseHandle(hProcess); 

            return text.ToString();
        }

    }
}

Solution 2

You can find window handle by process name using this code:

 Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(m.ProcessName);
                                    if (processes != null && processes.Length > 0)
                                    {
                                        Process process = processes[0];
                                        process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
                                        process.Refresh();
                                        if (process.MainWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero)
                                        { // process.mainwindows handle is needed for you

and than you can find window text by handle title = GetWindowTitle(process.MainWindowHandle);

private String GetWindowTitle(IntPtr hWn)
        {
            object LParam = new object();
            int WParam = 0;
            StringBuilder title = new StringBuilder(1024);
            SendMessage(hWn, WM_GETTEXT, WParam, LParam);
            GetWindowText(hWn, title, title.Capacity);
            return title.ToString();

        }

You need following declarations to call winapi functions:

 [DllImport("user32", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
        internal static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, [Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)] StringBuilder lpString, int nMaxCount);
        [DllImport("User32.dll", EntryPoint = "SendMessage")]
        public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, int wParam, object lParam);

Solution 3

For the window title, you'll have to do a P/Invoke of GetWindowText with the HWND returned from GetForegroundWindow().

As for the process info, I believe that P/Invoking GetWindowModuleFileName should work.

Solution 4

I don't think there is a .Net way of doing this, so I think you will have use PInvoke.

Here's some sample code http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32.getforegroundwindow

And as can be seen in that link there's a project (Managed Windows API) that wraps that up in managed code if you don't want to deal with the PInvoke code yourself.

View more solutions

Comments

[Michal Czardybon]

GetWindowText works, but GetWindowModuleFileName gives strange results - sometimes name of own process, sometimes empty string, never the name of the process of the top window.

[anonymous]

Oops, just read at support.microsoft.com/kb/228469 there GetWindowModuleFileName works for Win95/98 only. I'll check out the other possibilities.

[anonymous]

Ok found this post @ StackOverflow stackoverflow.com/questions/277085/… which should solve your question.

[Sebastian]

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