I want to parse the graphical interfaces that pop up during the execution of Windows based installers.
I want to retrieve the information that gets displayed on the pop up windows without of course taking up a subpar solution like OCR.
Are there any well known APIs provided by Microsoft or other open source solutions?
Related
I have looked at the Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library (FM20.DLL) and Microsoft Windows Common Controls (comctl32.dll), as both exist (I think) as OLE providers on my system. (I am doing this by opening them in VBA in Excel to look at the libraries with their members) and playing around with them in VBA.
My bigger problem is that I don't understand the relationship between the libraries themselves and ActiveX - how do I know which members can be created as ActiveX objects? (For example, you can create "Excel.Application", but not "MSForms.UserForm").
I want to be able to script (using OLE) a form using some library, display it, respond to events, etc. I would prefer using something that is already available (like the libraries mentioned above, if possible) to prevent having to install extra software.
If you can give an example (in any language) to get me started, that would be very helpful and much appreciated.
As per HansPassant's comment, what worked is using MS Forms 2.0, which has an ActiveX object, "Forms.Frame.1", which can be created and used in my program.
I found a program called ActiveXHelper, which allows one to see all the registered ActiveX objects on the system.
In Windows 8/8.1 it's now possible to enable/disable Bluetooth via the OS itself (see image below). This is awesome because it's device/driver-agnostic.
On Android, this is possible via BluetoothAdapter.enable() and BluetoothAdapter.disable(), but I haven't been able to find anything to do this on Windows (even though it seems like it's definitely possible).
So I've tried using:
BluetoothEnableIncomingConnections() - However, this only prevents new incoming connections. It doesn't disable existing ones.
devcon.exe - The problem with this method is that A. it is a non-redistributable binary B. it requires that you know he device ID ahead of time (so it's not device/driver-agnostic). Also, while it's not a dealbreaker, it'd be nice to not require elevation.
UI Automation - Simply launching the PC Settings app and toggling the switch with keyboard events is easy, but it's super ugly, both in terms of proper coding practices and in terms of user experience. That being said, this is the only way I've found to achieve the behavior I'm looking for so far.
I'm writing a native Win32 app in C++, so I'm not constrained to any Windows Store app requirements, although, it would be great if there was an approach that didn't require elevation.
TL;DR
Are there any APIs, WMI interfaces, or anything else available to achieve functionally equivalent results to flipping the Bluetooth toggle switch? If not, are there any alternative methods which yield similar results?
In win8.1 you should be able to call BluetoothEnableRadio to enable/disable the local radio.
Basically the manufacturers should include a method to accomplish this so you don't have to load a dll.
"Beginning with Windows 8.1 vendors are no longer required to implement radio on/off capability (for Bluetooth 4.0 radios) in a software DLL as described in this topic, because the operating system now handles this functionality. Windows 8.1 will ignore any such DLL, even if present."
check out this link which talks about it:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh450832%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
I need to create an application for all versions of windows (XP, Vista, 7) without the need to install .NET or other 3rd party tools.
The application needs to download files asynchronous which are received in a json format and display a html page which can communicate with the application using javascript.
Is there a way to do that using an advanced IDE like Visual Studio but without requiring anything besides the application exe?
Are there any open source alternatives?
Thank you.
Look into the WebBrowser control. It's basically an Internet Explorer control you can embed in your application, and it has an interface that allows all sorts of manipulations. And given Internet Explorer is always a part of windows, it'll always be available without further installations.
Using the control requires some work. You can start by looking at Using the WebBrowser control, simplified. It uses MFC, but you can use the control with plain C++ as well.
The way I'd use it is push as many complicated tasks as possible to the browser control, and run them using JavaScript. A-synchronously downloading JSON is a pain in C++, but a no-brainer in JS. So you can basically divide your logic between C++ and JavaScript, and figure out some interface (by using, say, the DOM).
For developing programs for windows, we need windows SDK. I understand that this SDK is what helps to create windows and handle window events and all that. I suppose it also enables us to manipulate with files and registries.
(Does the same SDK is the reason for thread creation and handling?)
All that is fine!
I would like to know what are the files and libraries that come as a part of this SDK. Also does it come when I install the OS or when I install editors like Visual studio? Sometimes I see links to windows SDK separately as such. Is it same as the one that I get when installing Visual Studio or has something more than that.
Base Services:
Provide access to the fundamental resources available to a Windows system.
Included are things like
file systems,
devices,
processes & threads
and error handling.
These functions reside in kernel32.dll on 32-bit Windows.
Advanced Services:
Provide access to functionality that is an addition on the kernel.
Included are things like the
Windows registry
shutdown/restart the system (or abort)
start/stop/create a Windows service
manage user accounts
These functions reside in advapi32.dll on 32-bit Windows.
Graphics Device Interface:
Provides functionality for outputting graphical content to
monitors,
printers
and other output devices.
It resides in gdi32.dll on 32-bit Windows in user-mode. Kernel-mode GDI support is provided by win32k.sys which communicates directly with the graphics driver.
User Interface:
Provides the functionality to create and manage screen windows and most basic controls, such as
buttons and scrollbars,
receive mouse and keyboard input,
and other functionality associated with the GUI part of Windows.
This functional unit resides in user32.dll on 32-bit Windows. Since Windows XP versions, the basic controls reside in comctl32.dll, together with the common controls (Common Control Library).
Common Dialog Box Library:
Provides applications the standard dialog boxes for
opening and saving files,
choosing color and font, etc.
The library resides in comdlg32.dll on 32-bit Windows. It is grouped under the User Interface category of the API.
Common Control Library:
Gives applications access to some advanced controls provided by the operating system. These include things like
status bars,
progress bars,
toolbars
and tabs.
The library resides in comctl32.dll on 32-bit Windows. It is grouped under the User Interface category of the API.
Windows Shell:
Component of the Windows API allows applications to access the
functionality provided by the operating system shell,
as well as change and enhance it.
The component resides in shell32.dll on 32-bit Windows. The Shell Lightweight Utility Functions are in shlwapi.dll. It is grouped under the User Interface category of the API.
Network Services:
Give access to the various networking capabilities of the operating system.
Its sub-components include
NetBIOS,
Winsock,
NetDDE,
RPC and many others.
Internet Explorer web browser APIs:
An embeddable web browser control, contained in shdocvw.dll and mshtml.dll.
The URL monitor service, held in urlmon.dll, which provides COM objects to applications for resolving URLs.
A library for assisting with multi-language and international text support (mlang.dll).
XML support (the MSXML components, held in msxml*.dll).
I have listed only files for 32-bit windows (as that is what many window developers work on)
For more info, please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_API
EDIT:
Above dlls and all are part of the operating system, not the SDK. The Windows SDK provides import libraries (.lib files) that allow code to dynamically link against these system-provided DLLs.
(This was rightly pointed by Marcelo Cantos. Many thanks to him)
SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It is a big fat collection of headers, libraries, tools and other bits and pieces that developers use to construct software. Microsoft provides many SDK's for their large range of products, and they are not generally deployed to the end-user's desktop. They are usually only installed on developer machines, either as part of a development environment like Visual Studio, or separately (but usually intended for use within VS anyway).
When you talk about the thing that handles windows, threads, etc., you are describing the Windows APIs. The purpose of an SDK is to allow developers to write software that accesses the APIs.
The Windows SDK gives you, as a developer, access to all the services of the Windows platform, including all the things you list.
The SDK is installed as part of the installation of Visual Studio, and usually you'll use the one that came with the compiler, and never have to worry about it. The standalone SDK downloads are there to support two scenarios:
If you use a compiler other that Visual Studio, it may not come with the SDK files, so you can download them separately.
Each new version of Windows includes more features in the API, so to call these new functions you need an updated SDK.
I developed a command line application, whose binary runs in Linux, Windows and Mac OSX. It reads some text input files, but I realize that some special users can not handle this. I would then like to build some kind of graphical interface, where the user only finds buttons and scroll bars for selecting the input parameters, a big "run" button, and then it reads the output of the program and makes some figures.
I also need that everything gets finally packed in a single file, which uses only static libraries, so the user just needs to copy the file to his/her machine and run it.
I would like to know what is the best open source and multi-platform approach to do this. 10 years ago I played a bit with something similar on DEC machines, so I guess that nowadays the situation has probably improved a bit.
P.S. For designing the graphical interface, I am looking for a graphical approach, where you add buttons, scroll bars with the mouse
P.S. 2: the interface is really simple, just need less than 10 buttons, 5 text fields and 2 scrolla bars
Thanks
For advanced UIs, I would generally recommend writing a different UI for each platform (since each platform has its human inteface guidelines). However, is this going to be a simple UI, then one of the cross-platform UIs.
You also didn't mention what language you want to use.
Lastly your "1 exe file" is a bit of a myth - it applies only to Windows. On MacOSX, we use the magic app folders, so it doesn't matter how many files comprise your app, you still get drag-n-drop installs.
Look into GTK+ which originated on Linux, or wxWidgets.
Tcl/Tk is a perfect choice. No other language provides as good of a deployment solution. You can create a virtual filesystem that has your application along with icons, sound files, etc into a single file for each platform (called a 'starpack'). You can even include binary executables and libraries, though those have to be copied to the actual filesystem at runtime to be used.
You also have the option of a two-file deployment -- a platform-specific runtime called 'tclkit', and a platform-independent application file called a 'starkit'. The one starkit will work on all platforms without recompiling, rebundling, etc. It can even have platform-specific parts built-inside and chosen at runtime.
A professional Tcl/Tk developer could do a front end to a command line program in a day without a graphical GUI design tool, easily. If you're new to tcl it will obviously take longer, but that is true of any language. The point being, Tk is remarkably easy to use and doesn't require a graphical GUI designer.
For a cross platform UI, you can use GTK (if using C) or QT (if using C++).
If you can live with a rather huge application package to deliver be sure to look at https://electronjs.org/ You can keep your functionality in your commandline apps and build a modern look and feel UI using HTML5 CSS JS and before thinking "this is ridiculous" consider that Microsoft's Visual Studio code is built on this and compared to GTK / wxWidgets you can do wonders with this. It isn't even hard to do but you either love it or hate it. I'm still undecided...