Hi,
First of all... Yeah, I know that there WAS and still IS a lot of discussions and arguing about this particular topic (actually the main reason why I opened a new "Global Hook vb.net" topic is because I couldn't find any answers to my questions as a lot of grown up KIDS are spamming the thread with their childish behavior and/or unproductive comments)...
TO THE PROBLEM:
I am currently trying to make an application that automatically installs other applications by simulating mouseclicks and keystrokes on buttons, forms, controls etc.
At this point I am able to launch Application/Installer; find the process, threadID, processID, Handle etc. of the Installer/Application and the associated controls; and to successfully send Keystrokes, Mouse-clicks, ... and so forth.
But there is a main problem: When the Installer/App starts its installation process it usually has a progressbar... Well... I need to know when the progressbar has reached 100% and I was unable to find it out on my own without the help of Spy++ and its MESSAGES window that showed me which messages the control currently sends and receives...
So I figured:
a) I could verify (every few milliseconds) if the progressbar is still on the form or if the form changed or something like that and continue with Mouse-clicks and/or Keystrokes... Well... no joy... VB either gave me some errors or some weird errors or some... well... weird results...
b) I could try to simulate what spy++ does and try to capture the messages sent/recieved by that particular progressbar... so I went on a 3 week SEARCH-ENGINE expedition.... guess what I learned... Hook-ing seemed to be the answer... well... SEEMED... I know that I need to make a global hook, but I have problems with making a global hook:
1. I read that it isn't possible with vb.net (actually it ain't possible in .net framework at all)
2. Later I read that someone actually did it (forgot where that came from)
3. Much. much later I read that some third party dll was able to give that functionality to vb.net (again: forgot where i read that)
4. I don't know how to make a DLL and make a global hook that I can actually call from my app (still in vb.net learning phase)
c) I could uninstall VS 2008...
Desperate about Google-ing, Yahoo-ing, AOL-ing, FilesTube-ing, Torrents, Forums, VS.net ... I came here and opened this topic in hope for any answers or any directions that someone could point me to... Hell, I even tried Microsofts BING (now you can see how desperate I was and still am)
BEFORE ANSWERING TO THIS TOPIC PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING:
PLEASE... I BEG YOU... DO NOT under any circumstances, start arguing through the whole thread... I'm sick of it really... I searched almost every forum on the web trying to find answers... and what did I find? Well, I found some KIDS that posted some stupid answers/comments only to raise their forum reputation to "Master of all Threads" or "Post-Monster" or some stupidity similiar to those I mentioned...
again:
PLEASE... I BEG YOU... DO NOT under any circumstances post here if you don't have a clue what I am writing about...
one more time:
PLEASE... I BEG YOU... DO NOT under any circumstances post comments like: "Learn C++", "Use /*enter any crappy Third-Party app here*/ this ...", "Search MSDN ..." etc. (As I already mentioned... I tried all of it with no avail)
One more thing: Sorry for the long post and/or double post (I'm tired of searching forums for any posts anymore) and sorry for any grammatical mistakes I maybe made... English isn't my native language.
Thanks in advance (for any PRODUCTIVE help),
Edin