C++ (CLR) mouse click inside a minimized window

Alexandru Teodor 91

In a windows C++ CLR project I am trying to build a function that can send a mouse click to absolute x, y coords in a out of focus / minimized / hidden window.

The function is controlled by pressing a button on the app GUI.

Doing some research on google I put together the code below.

The above code does send a click to the minimized window, but not at specified coords.

The click is sent to the minimized window at the coords of the mouse pressing button on the GUI.

So whereever the GUI is located on the desktop, when I press the button that runs the function, the click is sent to the minimized window at the GUI's button coords.

If I set focus to the window (SetForegroundWindow) sleep a few seconds then perform the code above, it still does not work and the click is sent to the GUI's button coordinates. So i figure there is a problem with the code... as it should have sent the click correctly on the focused window...

Any ideeas on how I can make this code work as intended?

Thanks

Alexandru Teodor 91 Reputation points

2022-06-14T09:35:24.193+00:00

for some reason i cant post the code: WAF v2 has determined your request exceeded the normal web request and has blocked your request.

so i attached it as an image... sorry about that
David Lowndes 4,711 Reputation points

2022-06-14T09:48:27.88+00:00

What are x and y values when you send the message, and what are they when the receiving application gets them?
Spy++ should help you finding the latter.
It's possible that the receiving application ignores the values you pass.
Alexandru Teodor 91 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:09:08.413+00:00

It seems the target window indeed ignores my messages as I can not find anything in spy++, in messages section of the target window (i am not 100% sure i use spy++ corecttly).

So if the window ignores "SendMessage" is there any other way of targeting a click to an absolute position of a minimized window?
RLWA32 40,756 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:11:06.177+00:00

SendInput function
Alexandru Teodor 91 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:14:48.52+00:00

I looked at SendInput, but couldnt find a way to target a windows handle...
RLWA32 40,756 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:22:05.65+00:00

By the way, the mouse coordinates used in the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message should be relative to the upper left corner of the receiving window's client area. Maybe your x and y coordinates are bad.
David Lowndes 4,711 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:27:12.903+00:00

As far as I know, Spy++ should be able to list those received messages.
Alexandru Teodor 91 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:30:33.757+00:00

It's not the issue if the coords are wrong or not. The issue is that the window doesn't seem to register the sendmessage.

If I move the GUI on the desktop screen, the click is always sent (in the minimized window) to the exact coordinates of the button that triggers the click function. So it's not that the coords are not accurate... it's that they are ignored.
Castorix31 81,831 Reputation points

2022-06-14T10:38:51.213+00:00

This has no sense to use client coordinates on a minimized window because the client area is empty...
Castorix31 81,831 Reputation points

2022-06-14T12:46:13.773+00:00

I did some tests and it seems to work with UIAutomation (to test, I identified buttons with their AutomationId with Inspect tool, when it is fixed (most of the time))
Also sending BM_CLICK on the button or BN_CLICKED on the parent can work, but not all the time...