Controlling programs

Someone asked this question a few days ago.
I wanted to know how to click the ok button in the windows login dialog.
So I found out.

Code:

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int APIENTRY WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,
                    HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                    LPSTR    lpCmdLine,
                    int      nCmdShow)
{
        HWND handle; //handle to a window
    printf("Waiting for login dialog\n");
    for(;;){ //main loop
        handle = FindWindow(NULL, "Enter Network Password"); //The window I'm looking for

        if(handle){
            printf("Login dialog found");
            SendMessage(handle, WM_COMMAND, 0x00000001, 0x000000c8); //see notes
            break; //exit loop
        }   
    }
    //exit(0);

        return 0;
}

//Notes:
// Using spy++ I viewed the messages sent to the login window.
// I only care about the WM_COMMAND messages sent to this window
// Seeing the message directed to a window object (say... a button 0xc8),
// you can easly get the pram. 0x1 basicly tells 0xc8 that it has been clicked.
// Very useful when you have a nat server on win98. CRASH

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You do know that you can also search for child windows, correct?

nope. Can you explain?

this looks very interesting. does it mean you can have a robot program control your computer? and can you use any window, provided you have the caption text?

if you know what messages to send... Yes

After you use FindWindow to get the handle of the parent window, you can use FindWindowEx to search through the child windows.

Here's some help (I think):

After you use FindWindow() and find the dialog, then do this:

HWND hOK = FindWindowEx(hMainHwnd, NULL, "button", "Ok");
SendMessage(hOK, BM_CLICK, 0, 0);

I think this should work. It finds the Ok button in the dialog and sends a button press to it. ('hMainHwnd' is the handle to the main dialog that you used FindWindow() on) :):)

Quote:

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Originally posted by bennyandthejets
this looks very interesting. does it mean you can have a robot program control your computer? and can you use any window, provided you have the caption text?

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Theoretically yes, practically no.

Also, you cant use SendMessage and the like to manipulate the WinLogon dialog if that's what some of you are thinking.......M$ arent as stupid as you think.....there are mechanisms to stop your proggie messing with the logon process