Programming Forums > Application Development > C

linuxpimp20 · Sep 11th, 2005, 6:10 PM

Hi im trying to write a small little program that will have a message start up when a particular program starts. I think it wouldn't be too complicated, but thought so of other projects then you get into and realize it seemed easy because you didn't think of everything. lol. the problem is i am a *nix user so don't know much of windows programming. I am familar with GTK so that is what i'll probably use to try to generate the window - unless there is something windows native to windows that would be simpler. This is how i think it would have to work. The program would sleep till it recieved a signal from the particular program then execute to display the window. (Pretty new to programming so sorry if that isn't even near correct and sounds retarded. lol) Im not even sure what to google for to look for help - also i didn't know how helpful microsoft is to amateur/hobbyist programmers. thanks for any help in advance.

iignotus · Sep 11th, 2005, 7:13 PM

Quote:

I am familar with GTK so that is what i'll probably use to try to generate the window - unless there is something windows native to windows that would be simpler.

Yes, well -- there's always the actual Windows API :p

One way I could think of doing this at the moment is by editing the program you're launching to open up the dialog and then recompile it. However, I'm guessing that's not an option.

The only other way is by starting a program that looks for the window handle or process ID of the other program, and launches when it finds it. However, that takes a lot of resources.

What exactly are you trying to do, i.e, what program and what message are you wanting to display?

linuxpimp20 · Sep 11th, 2005, 7:21 PM

well i want the program to trigger when yahoo messenger starts up. My parents think she chats too much so i want the message to say like "Why don't you take a walk" or something to try to encourage her to get off because she won't listen to my parents and if we delete yahoo she will install it again and if we block her from installing it she will get pissed and it will make living with her even more of a pain. They can't really ground her - she is in her 30's. At the very least maybe the pop up every time she wants to get on would be enough of an annoyance for her to not want to go on as much. I don't know about you but i'd start thinking more about doing something when even my computer starts to nag me!

iignotus · Sep 11th, 2005, 7:37 PM

Well in that case, you could also do some grungy socket work to keep track of how many times the program accesses the Yahoo Messenger protocol, and after a while pop up a message. This can also be tweaked to how long she's been on the internet in general.

A bit higher level would be to set up a bot to send messages to her screen name every once in a while and ask her to do something else, but the user can just be blocked I'm sure.

I don't know if these answers are what you're looking for, as I'm not a seasoned windows programmer either. But each one of them should work in its own way.

linuxpimp20 · Sep 11th, 2005, 7:47 PM

yeah i thought of ways to extend it as well. For instance i know they have those taskbar programs that display the current temp as given by weather.com or something. I could have it check that and only to display the message "Try taking a walk" if it is over a certain degree and if under say "Try reading a book" But i'll be luckily to get a message to work. lol

bl00dninja · Sep 12th, 2005, 12:55 AM

if she's in her 30's...why does anyone care?

InfoGeek · Sep 12th, 2005, 5:40 AM

You can probably make a program that sits in the backgrounds and enumerates all the open windows every few seconds and then checks if messenger is running by looking at the title bar text. and then displaying a pop-up window.

InfoGeek · Sep 12th, 2005, 6:06 AM

Here is a small Win32 App that checks(every 10 sec) for windows having title bar text Yahoo! and displays a Message box if it finds one. It's "quick and dirty".

(Toggle Plain Text)

#include<windows.h>

BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND parent,LPARAM l);
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam);

int _stdcall WinMain(HINSTANCE i,HINSTANCE j,LPSTR k,int l)
{
	WNDCLASS wc;
	wc.cbClsExtra=0;
	wc.cbWndExtra=0;
	wc.hbrBackground=(HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH);
	wc.hCursor=LoadCursor(NULL,IDC_ARROW);
	wc.hIcon=LoadIcon(NULL,IDI_APPLICATION);
	wc.hInstance=i;
	wc.lpfnWndProc=(WNDPROC)WndProc;
	wc.lpszClassName="myclass";
	wc.lpszMenuName=NULL;
	wc.style = CS_HREDRAW|CS_VREDRAW;

	RegisterClass(&wc);

	HWND hwnd;
	hwnd = CreateWindow("myclass","Timer Demo",WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW|WS_MAXIMIZE,
		CW_USEDEFAULT,CW_USEDEFAULT,400,400,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL);
	
	//ShowWindow(hwnd,SW_SHOWNORMAL);
	
	SetTimer(hwnd,1,10000,NULL);

	MSG msg;
	while(GetMessage(&msg,NULL,NULL,NULL))
	{
		TranslateMessage(&msg);
		DispatchMessage(&msg);
	}

	return 0;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam)
{
	
	switch(msg)
	{
	case WM_TIMER:
		EnumWindows(EnumProc,0);
		break;
	
	default:
		return DefWindowProc(hwnd,msg,wparam,lparam);
	}
	return 0L;
}

BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND hwnd,LPARAM l)
{
	char buff[100];
	GetWindowText(hwnd,buff,100);
	if(strncmp(buff,"Yahoo!",6)==0)
		MessageBox(NULL,"Try taking a walk","Hello",MB_OK);

	return TRUE;
}

HTH

Mad_guy · Sep 12th, 2005, 4:55 PM

Could you please explain to me why in the hell you took the time to create a window and set up a timer when in a lot less code you could have simply done a Sleep(); call inside a while loop?

Using a program like SPY++, you can find the windows simply by doing something similar to this as I have done with AOL Messenger. Once you do that it will take you to a scroll down box in which case you can right click and select 'messages' to monitor messages sent to the window. If you notice, you can indeed see a lot of messages being sent, try diagnosing these. When you find one, in my case I have chosen the WM_COMMAND message, and I have seen that when you log onto AIM, a EN_KILLFOCUS message is sent in coordnance. (When a WM_COMMAND message is sent you can switch off the high and low bytes of both lParam and wParam of a window proc to get additional information over a message such as which control a message came from. In this case, using MSDN I have deduced that if a WM_COMMAND message is sent I can see if a EN_KILLFOCUS message is sent by looking at the high word of the wParam message, i.e. like this:

if(HIWORD(wParam) == EN_KILLFOCUS)
MessageBox(NULL,"Why not go outside?","You should.",MB_OK);

Luckly, there is a special mechanism inside the Win32 API that allows you to spy on messages sent to a window: global hooks. By using a global hook of type WH_CALLWNDPROC, and if we specify 0 as the last parameter to SetWindowsHookEx, we can spy on all of the messages.

Basically it includes these steps:

Use a spy tool (SPY++ was used in my explaination) to spy on the Yahoo! IM program, monitor messages sent to the logon until you find one that looks a little out of the average (otherwise you'll get crazy amounts of message boxes), and then write a program that installs a WH_CALLWNDPROC hook on all programs, even ones spawned. Once that happens, it's as easy for checking for your message.

I am deeply sorry if this confused you, but Windows is a whole different ballpark than Linux is, and it has a much tigher and very hierarchical API. I might be able to take an hour off sometime and try to explain this to you a little more (since I like to think I know a little more about windows than the average customer.)

InfoGeek · Sep 13th, 2005, 7:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad_guy

Could you please explain to me why in the hell you took the time to create a window and set up a timer

I'm learning Win32 API. and i created a little program to see how timers worked. Seeing this problem, i just edited that program and added the EnumWindows stuff and it just fitted the problem. May be that was a bad idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad_guy

in a lot less code you could have simply done a Sleep(); call inside a while loop?

That's indeed a better idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfoGeek

It's "quick and dirty".

quick for me, dirty for you.

Sep 11th, 2005, 6:10 PM	#1
linuxpimp20 Hobbyist Programmer Join Date: May 2005 Location: ma Posts: 130 Rep Power: 4	How to make a message pop up when a program starts in windows. Hi im trying to write a small little program that will have a message start up when a particular program starts. I think it wouldn't be too complicated, but thought so of other projects then you get into and realize it seemed easy because you didn't think of everything. lol. the problem is i am a *nix user so don't know much of windows programming. I am familar with GTK so that is what i'll probably use to try to generate the window - unless there is something windows native to windows that would be simpler. This is how i think it would have to work. The program would sleep till it recieved a signal from the particular program then execute to display the window. (Pretty new to programming so sorry if that isn't even near correct and sounds retarded. lol) Im not even sure what to google for to look for help - also i didn't know how helpful microsoft is to amateur/hobbyist programmers. thanks for any help in advance.

Sep 11th, 2005, 7:37 PM	#4
iignotus Professional Programmer Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Nowhere Special Posts: 466 Rep Power: 4	Well in that case, you could also do some grungy socket work to keep track of how many times the program accesses the Yahoo Messenger protocol, and after a while pop up a message. This can also be tweaked to how long she's been on the internet in general. A bit higher level would be to set up a bot to send messages to her screen name every once in a while and ask her to do something else, but the user can just be blocked I'm sure. I don't know if these answers are what you're looking for, as I'm not a seasoned windows programmer either. But each one of them should work in its own way. __________________ (Toggle Plain Text) % rc4 hexkey < input > output #define S ,t=s[i],s[i]=s[j],s[j]=t /* rc4 hexkey <file / unsigned char k[256],s[256],i,j,t;main(c,v,e)charv;{++v;while(++i)s[ i]=i;for(c=0;(v)++;k[c++]=e)sscanf((v)++-1,"%2x",&e);while(j+=s[i] +k[i%c]S,++i);for(j=0;c=~getchar();putchar(~c^s[t+=s[i]]))j+=s[++i]S;}

Sep 12th, 2005, 12:55 AM	#6
bl00dninja Programming Guru Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: namespace std Posts: 1,246 Rep Power: 5	if she's in her 30's...why does anyone care? __________________ i put on my robe and wizard hat... Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?...Morons.

Sep 12th, 2005, 5:40 AM	#7
InfoGeek Professional Programmer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: India, The great. Posts: 435 Rep Power: 4	You can probably make a program that sits in the backgrounds and enumerates all the open windows every few seconds and then checks if messenger is running by looking at the title bar text. and then displaying a pop-up window. __________________ PFO - My daily dose of technology.

Sep 12th, 2005, 6:06 AM	#8
InfoGeek Professional Programmer Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: India, The great. Posts: 435 Rep Power: 4	Here is a small Win32 App that checks(every 10 sec) for windows having title bar text Yahoo! and displays a Message box if it finds one. It's "quick and dirty". (Toggle Plain Text) #include<windows.h> BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND parent,LPARAM l); LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam); int _stdcall WinMain(HINSTANCE i,HINSTANCE j,LPSTR k,int l) { WNDCLASS wc; wc.cbClsExtra=0; wc.cbWndExtra=0; wc.hbrBackground=(HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH); wc.hCursor=LoadCursor(NULL,IDC_ARROW); wc.hIcon=LoadIcon(NULL,IDI_APPLICATION); wc.hInstance=i; wc.lpfnWndProc=(WNDPROC)WndProc; wc.lpszClassName="myclass"; wc.lpszMenuName=NULL; wc.style = CS_HREDRAW\|CS_VREDRAW; RegisterClass(&wc); HWND hwnd; hwnd = CreateWindow("myclass","Timer Demo",WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW\|WS_MAXIMIZE, CW_USEDEFAULT,CW_USEDEFAULT,400,400,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL); //ShowWindow(hwnd,SW_SHOWNORMAL); SetTimer(hwnd,1,10000,NULL); MSG msg; while(GetMessage(&msg,NULL,NULL,NULL)) { TranslateMessage(&msg); DispatchMessage(&msg); } return 0; } LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam) { switch(msg) { case WM_TIMER: EnumWindows(EnumProc,0); break; default: return DefWindowProc(hwnd,msg,wparam,lparam); } return 0L; } BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND hwnd,LPARAM l) { char buff[100]; GetWindowText(hwnd,buff,100); if(strncmp(buff,"Yahoo!",6)==0) MessageBox(NULL,"Try taking a walk","Hello",MB_OK); return TRUE; } #include<windows.h> BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND parent,LPARAM l); LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam); int _stdcall WinMain(HINSTANCE i,HINSTANCE j,LPSTR k,int l) { WNDCLASS wc; wc.cbClsExtra=0; wc.cbWndExtra=0; wc.hbrBackground=(HBRUSH)GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH); wc.hCursor=LoadCursor(NULL,IDC_ARROW); wc.hIcon=LoadIcon(NULL,IDI_APPLICATION); wc.hInstance=i; wc.lpfnWndProc=(WNDPROC)WndProc; wc.lpszClassName="myclass"; wc.lpszMenuName=NULL; wc.style = CS_HREDRAW\|CS_VREDRAW; RegisterClass(&wc); HWND hwnd; hwnd = CreateWindow("myclass","Timer Demo",WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW\|WS_MAXIMIZE, CW_USEDEFAULT,CW_USEDEFAULT,400,400,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL); //ShowWindow(hwnd,SW_SHOWNORMAL); SetTimer(hwnd,1,10000,NULL); MSG msg; while(GetMessage(&msg,NULL,NULL,NULL)) { TranslateMessage(&msg); DispatchMessage(&msg); } return 0; } LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd,UINT msg,WPARAM wparam,LPARAM lparam) { switch(msg) { case WM_TIMER: EnumWindows(EnumProc,0); break; default: return DefWindowProc(hwnd,msg,wparam,lparam); } return 0L; } BOOL CALLBACK EnumProc(HWND hwnd,LPARAM l) { char buff[100]; GetWindowText(hwnd,buff,100); if(strncmp(buff,"Yahoo!",6)==0) MessageBox(NULL,"Try taking a walk","Hello",MB_OK); return TRUE; } HTH __________________ PFO - My daily dose of technology.

Sep 11th, 2005, 7:21 PM	#3
linuxpimp20 Hobbyist Programmer Join Date: May 2005 Location: ma Posts: 130 Rep Power: 4	well i want the program to trigger when yahoo messenger starts up. My parents think she chats too much so i want the message to say like "Why don't you take a walk" or something to try to encourage her to get off because she won't listen to my parents and if we delete yahoo she will install it again and if we block her from installing it she will get pissed and it will make living with her even more of a pain. They can't really ground her - she is in her 30's. At the very least maybe the pop up every time she wants to get on would be enough of an annoyance for her to not want to go on as much. I don't know about you but i'd start thinking more about doing something when even my computer starts to nag me!

Sep 11th, 2005, 7:47 PM	#5
linuxpimp20 Hobbyist Programmer Join Date: May 2005 Location: ma Posts: 130 Rep Power: 4	yeah i thought of ways to extend it as well. For instance i know they have those taskbar programs that display the current temp as given by weather.com or something. I could have it check that and only to display the message "Try taking a walk" if it is over a certain degree and if under say "Try reading a book" But i'll be luckily to get a message to work. lol

Sep 12th, 2005, 4:55 PM	#9
Mad_guy Hobbyist Programmer Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Sandstorm, Techno Club Posts: 239 Rep Power: 4	Could you please explain to me why in the hell you took the time to create a window and set up a timer when in a lot less code you could have simply done a Sleep(); call inside a while loop? Using a program like SPY++, you can find the windows simply by doing something similar to this as I have done with AOL Messenger. Once you do that it will take you to a scroll down box in which case you can right click and select 'messages' to monitor messages sent to the window. If you notice, you can indeed see a lot of messages being sent, try diagnosing these. When you find one, in my case I have chosen the WM_COMMAND message, and I have seen that when you log onto AIM, a EN_KILLFOCUS message is sent in coordnance. (When a WM_COMMAND message is sent you can switch off the high and low bytes of both lParam and wParam of a window proc to get additional information over a message such as which control a message came from. In this case, using MSDN I have deduced that if a WM_COMMAND message is sent I can see if a EN_KILLFOCUS message is sent by looking at the high word of the wParam message, i.e. like this: if(HIWORD(wParam) == EN_KILLFOCUS) MessageBox(NULL,"Why not go outside?","You should.",MB_OK); Luckly, there is a special mechanism inside the Win32 API that allows you to spy on messages sent to a window: global hooks. By using a global hook of type WH_CALLWNDPROC, and if we specify 0 as the last parameter to SetWindowsHookEx, we can spy on all of the messages. Basically it includes these steps: Use a spy tool (SPY++ was used in my explaination) to spy on the Yahoo! IM program, monitor messages sent to the logon until you find one that looks a little out of the average (otherwise you'll get crazy amounts of message boxes), and then write a program that installs a WH_CALLWNDPROC hook on all programs, even ones spawned. Once that happens, it's as easy for checking for your message. I am deeply sorry if this confused you, but Windows is a whole different ballpark than Linux is, and it has a much tigher and very hierarchical API. I might be able to take an hour off sometime and try to explain this to you a little more (since I like to think I know a little more about windows than the average customer.)

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Programming Forums > Application Development > C

How to make a message pop up when a program starts in windows.