vbscript to check if a window is open using wildcard - vbscript

Question

I would like to check if a window is open using wildcard in vbscript. I was able to find the code below:
Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
If oShell.AppActivate("Untitled - Notepad") Then
WScript.Sleep 500
End If
But i would like to use a wildcard on the window title. I tried using * and % but it's not working. Any help is appreciated.
If oShell.AppActivate("*Notepad*") Then
Updates guys.. I was able to find a solution but it is still open if someone can simplify this. Thank you.
Set Word = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set Tasks = Word.Tasks
isFound = False
For i = 1 to 5
For Each Task in Tasks
checkVal = 0
If Task.Visible Then
checkVal = inStr(UCase(Task.name), UCase("outlook"))
If checkVal <> 0 Then
isFound = True
Exit For
End If
End If
Next
If isFound = True Then
Exit For
End If
WScript.Sleep 1000
Next
Word.Quit
msgbox ("Is the Window Found? - " & isFound)

Answer 1

Check out this method versus creating a word doc. That method requires a dependency of having office installed. This uses only native Windows libraries.
First function: findwindowtitle
Executes the Tasklist command to enumerate and filter down the list of titles. Then fires off the regex parser to match your string against the leftover values from tasklist.
Second function: matchtitle Then it proceeds to use convert your wildcard into a regular expression of the [a-zA-Z0-9.- ] which is alphanumeric including spaces. Kind of required for the wildcard and allowed characters for windows files to work.
MysearchString = "*Notepad"
processtitle = findwindowtitle(MysearchString)
wscript.echo "My search found window title: '" & processtitle & "'"
'do something with processtitle
function findwindowtitle(srchstr)
filtersrchstr = replace(srchstr, "*", "")
strcommand = "tasklist /v | find /i """ & filtersrchstr & """"
cmdout = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Exec("cmd /c """ & strcommand & " 2>&1 """).stdout.readall
wscript.sleep 500
findwindowtitle = matchtitle(srchstr, cmdout)
End Function
Function matchtitle(srchstr, input)
matchtitle = false
if instr(1, srchstr, "*", 1) <> 0 Then
filtersrchstr = replace(srchstr, "*", "")
filterstrpatt = replace(srchstr, "*", "[a-zA-Z0-9\.- ]*")
end if
Set regex = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
regex.MultiLine = True
regex.Global = True
regex.IgnoreCase = True
regex.Pattern = "(?:.*)(?:\d\d?\d?:\d\d:\d\d\s)(\b" & filterstrpatt & "\b)"
Set matches = regex.Execute(input)
for m = 0 to matches.count - 1
Set SubMatches = matches.item(m).SubMatches
for i = 0 to (Submatches.count - 1)
if instr(1, Submatches.item(i), filtersrchstr, 1) <> 0 then matchtitle = Submatches.item(i)
Next
Next
if (matchtitle = false) then
wscript.echo "Could not find process with title matching, '" & srchstr & "'"
wscript.quit
end if
End Function