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Determining what apps are currently running...

I need to know what applications are currently running in Winodws at the point my VB6 app executes. Is it possible to retrieve a list of all resident programs and perhaps even retrieve a little information from each of them (Window captions etc).

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

waty

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waty

Here are lots of interesting links, just make your choice :)

http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/code/system/toolhelpprocesses.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q192/9/86.asp

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q187/9/13.asp

Shows how to determine and display Windows' Alt+Tab order.
http://www.mvps.org/vb/samples.htm#AltTab

lbowers

ASKER

First of all your answer is superb, but before I close this question I would like to know if it is possible to retrieve the windows captions of any processes/applications that have interfaces. I need to extract some information from the applications title bar... Thanks again...

waty

' #VBIDEUtils#************************************************************
' * Programmer Name : FreeVBCode
' * Web Site : http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.Asp?ID=487
' * E-Mail : waty.thierry@usa.net
' * Date : 17/11/1999
' * Time : 09:52
' **********************************************************************
' * Comments : Retrieve the Captions of All Open Top-Level Windows
' *
' *
' **********************************************************************
Option Explicit

Private Declare Function EnumWindows Lib "user32" _
(ByVal lpEnumFunc As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias _
"GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String, _
ByVal cch As Long) As Long

Private asTopLevelWindows() As String

Public Function TopLevelWindows() As String()

'PURPOSE: RETURNS AN ARRAY OF TOPLEVEL WINDOWS
'REQUIRES: VB 6
'SAMPLE:
'Dim sArray() As String
'Dim iCtr As Integer

'sArray = TopLevelWindows
'For iCtr = 0 To UBound(sArray)
'Debug.Print sArray(iCtr)
'Next

ReDim asTopLevelWindows(0) As String
Dim lRet As Long
lRet = EnumWindows(AddressOf AddElement, 0)
TopLevelWindows = asTopLevelWindows
End Function

Private Function AddElement(ByVal lhWnd As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long

Dim sTitle As String
Dim lRet As Long
Dim iNew As Integer

sTitle = Space(255)
lRet = GetWindowText(lhWnd, sTitle, 255)

sTitle = StripNull(sTitle)

If sTitle <> "" Then
If asTopLevelWindows(0) = "" Then
iNew = 0
Else
iNew = UBound(asTopLevelWindows) + 1
ReDim Preserve asTopLevelWindows(iNew) As String
End If

asTopLevelWindows(iNew) = sTitle

End If

AddElement = True

End Function

Private Function StripNull(ByVal InString As String) As String

'Input: String containing null terminator (Chr(0))
'Returns: all character before the null terminator

Dim iNull As Integer
If Len(InString) > 0 Then
iNull = InStr(InString, vbNullChar)
Select Case iNull
Case 0
StripNull = InString
Case 1
StripNull = ""
Case Else
StripNull = Left$(InString, iNull - 1)
End Select
End If

End Function

lbowers

ASKER

Fantastic - I've upped the points to 150 as a thank you. Cheers.

lbowers

ASKER

When running the "TopLevelWindows" exmaple code I get a "Can't Assign To Array" error on the line:

sArray = TopLevelWindows

What's wrong?

waty

If I remember well, you need VB6.
otherwise, you can pass the array as a parameter,
or declaring like this

Public Function TopLevelWindows() As Variant

lbowers

ASKER

I am using Visual Basic 6 SP3...

waty

This is strange

pass the array as a parameter,
or declaring like this

Public Function TopLevelWindows() As Variant

lbowers

ASKER

Waty,

Thanks again for your help.
I'd actually made a stupid error - I caled my .BAS file the same name as the function TopLevelWindows !!!

Sorry...