how to Install global mouse Hook for certain UI like "desktop"

Question

the code so far installs a hook to detect the mouse activity but what i want is either to filter the activity for certain UI or to detect where the clicks has occurred (on which hwnd ) exactly 'Desktop' is there a way ?

this is the code i've used it's from Microsoft website here : How to set a Windows hook in Visual C# .NET

EDIT : i found that he code provided by is not global so for global hook check link in the answer the answer ,,

You pretty much have to know the HWND first then do your own filtering during your global callback. Use `GetDesktopWindow ()` to get HWND of Desktop ahead of time — , Jul 13 '15 at 02:29
thank you @Micky for your reply i already thought about using 'GetDesktioWindow()' to get the HWND but **where or how can i filter it during global callback ?** "first i tried to use 'WndProc()' but i found out it only receives messages passed to HWND i am using and nothing about desktop " — Ayad Kara Kâhya, Jul 13 '15 at 09:16
No worries, as per the example install a WH_MOUSE and the HWND will be in the `MOUSEHOOKSTRUCT.hwnd` via the LPARAM of your `MouseHook()` callback — , Jul 13 '15 at 10:08
i found that this hook is not global and only works within the form am using it was so depressing for me should i edit the question ? i have to start from zero calling WH_MOUSE_LL instead Of WH_MOUSE — Ayad Kara Kâhya, Jul 14 '15 at 01:54
Perhaps it's a limitation of .NET? Up to you. I always did global hooks from c/c++. Wishing you well — , Jul 14 '15 at 02:56
Dear @MickyDuncan i found that WH_MOUSE_LL struct have no HWND in it and the WH_MOUSE stuct (which is not global) have HWND that "according to Microsoft website :" hwnd Type: HWND A handle to the window that will receive the mouse message corresponding to the mouse event. what do you think — Ayad Kara Kâhya, Jul 14 '15 at 17:45

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

First about the hook i found that it's not global and i found open-source global hook Here so whenever the mouse click occurs an event will fire and there i run simple callback code that checks if the desktop is the active control

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int GetForegroundWindow();

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int GetClassName(int hWnd, StringBuilder lpClassName, int nMaxCount);

public void GetActiveWindow() {
const int maxChars = 256;
int handle = 0;
StringBuilder className = new StringBuilder(maxChars);

handle = GetForegroundWindow();

if (GetClassName(handle, className, maxChars) > 0) {
    string cName = className.ToString();
    if (cName == "Progman" || cName == "WorkerW") {
        // desktop is active
    } else {
        // desktop is not active
    }
}

}

DONE!

special thanks to Micky Duncaand and AJKenny84

how to Install global mouse Hook for certain UI like "desktop"

1 Answers1