My Lenovo laptop has two task bar type programs that show the network status and battery status. I have been trying to search for what these types of widgits are called. Unfortuantly my google-foo is only returning results for minimizing programs to the system tray.
I am not even sure if these are system tray apps or taskbar apps. but either way, please help me find a API reference or even better a tutorial.
I want to make a Work Week Widgit, that displays the current work week number on this widget. I program mostly in python, but am willing to learn another language just to make this tool.
They are known as Desktop Bands, also known as DeskBands. Note that Desktop Bands are not recommended starting in Windows 7. Note also that since they are shell extensions, they must be written in native code.
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I've got a personal laptop (running Windows 10) which I use at work where I connect it to an external display using extended display mode. I keep all my personal icons and windows on my laptop display and store all the work-related windows on the external display. Whenever I unplug it, all the windows and icons from that display are merged into my laptop screen. I want to programmatically prevent changing anything on my primary screen when the secondary is disconnected. I'm currently writing a utility app for a variety of small productivity improving features and would like to add such feature in it. I can think of two ways to achieve this:
by tricking the system to think that the external display hasn't been
disconnected;
or take all the opened windows and icons on disconnected screen and put them on separate virtual desktop.
I was looking into Windows GDI Device Context Functions but haven't found anything about display connection/disconnection events. How can I detect display disconnection (and get that display's opened windows and icons)? Anything that can be done using C#, C++ or PowerShell scripts would be much appreciated!
I am a novice when it comes to X windows but have some knowledge of Unix as such.
My project requires me to track user input and output on X window system. For instance, if the GUI is used to configure a route, I would like to know what application is used and what route has been configured. So far, I have explored the following options with partial success.
1)Tried to hook functions like XDrawString and XDrawText using LD_PRELOAD.
2)Used xwininfo to obtain window id and tools like xev.
3)Looked through similar discussions in this forum especially on xev and xinput
1)May not work with if X11 is statically linked? Not sure.
2)xev does not record key press events for a file edited with gedit or attempting to rename a file from the GUI
3)I am trying to go through X windows system internals.
I am pretty discouraged so far. Any input/pointer will be appreciated.
I think you want the cnee program from the Xnee project, which uses the X window system Record extension. The examples that I see for cnee are almost always about recording input events, but, according to the Xnee manual at https://xnee.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/xnee1.pdf, section 3.2.1 ("Record"), "Xnee can record the whole X11 protocol, not just mouse and keyboard events."
Regarding font operations, I believe that X font facilities, mostly through the X font server, evolved over time too, so it might be the case that the applications that you care about are doing X font operations which you can trace.
When I'm using my laptop, I use 3 displays:
The laptop display
A second monitor (connected through VGA)
A TV (connected through HDMI)
My videocard doesn't support 3 monitors, so I'm constantly switching from 2 to 3: when I'm on the computer, I use the 2nd monitor, and when I want to watch some movies, etc. I use the 3rd.
I currently have to go to Screen Resolution, select the monitor that is not in use, and choose Extend desktop to this display.
Is there a way I can automate it?
Is there any command-line tool, or any Windows API that allows doing it?
Edit:
Display Changer seems to do what I need, but the problem is that it only detects the working monitors. The 3rd monitor (which isn't currently in use) isn't detected, so I can't attach it.
A bit of RE on DisplaySwitch.exe shows that it calls
SetDisplayConfig(0, NULL, NULL, NULL, 0x888)
to set it to Extended on my computer.
From there, a little digging around got me to the SetDisplayConfig documentation obviously and also this SO page with some example code that queries your current display state and adds the actual flags to change them if you want to do so.
I answered a similar question with suggestion to try UltraMon or use their SDK, but you can also hit the Win32 API directly with ChangeDisplaySettingsEx. Another user, Sai, gave an reference to an example showing use of the function.
I have 3 monitors, but I don't need them all turned on all the time. I can just shut them down with power button, but I want to use their standby mode, like Windows does when we let PC idle for a while - it shuts down monitors, HDD, etc.
But of course, I wanna keep using PC and let just that monitor on standby. Others must remain on and that one doesn't wake up even with me using PC.
Is it possible to do that? It would be great to have a shortcut like Winkey+1, 2, 3 etc to shut down and wake up each monitor.
An existing app with this feature is not likely to exist, but is there a Windows API function that can control monitor state, for each monitor in a MultiMonitor system?
The display control panel applet calls SetDisplayConfig to start or stop forced projection on a particular target
You can probably use MS Detours or some other API hooking tool to inspect the usage pattern of the API while using the applet to adjust display settings.
You'll want to try Display Fusion. You should be able to do what you're asking for using Monitor configurations.
I know I'm late on this but use DDC to control your display. You can easily create hotkeys that send a command via DDC to the display to turn-off. This would be equivalent to turning off the display using the button. Works like a charm for me. The only trick is that DDC command specs vary across monitor manufacturers but its not hard to find the right codes to send with the help of google.
Ready made tools also exist for this; search for anything that is related to DDC or EDID and you should find.
Be aware though that this does not remove the display from Windows which means that apps may find their way onto displays that are off and you will be looking for them.
I need to build an application on Mac OS X that runs on the background, windowless and provides a status icon in the top-right corner of the menu bar. It should launch on a specific action initiated by the user (not at system start up) and interact solely through the status bar icon.
On Windows this is very close to Services, on Unix - to daemons. What should i search for in Mac documentation? I just need a few keywords.
Nothing so strictly defined. Mac OS X considers the parts of your question to be separate concepts:
The icon on the right side of the menu bar (i.e., in the status bar) is a status item. Any application can create any number of them, using the NSStatusItem class.
An application with no Dock tile is usually an agent. An application with no UI at all is a daemon. A status item counts as UI, so an application with only a status item is an agent. The typical way to make an agent (with or without a status item) is to set LSUIElement to the string "1" in its Info.plist.
Having never programmed DOS or Windows, I have no idea what “resident” means to you. On Mac OS X, it simply means “in RAM”, which any running application at least partially is.
Services on Windows are not at all connected to this concept. A status item-only utility is the simile for something running solely from the system tray (like one of those delightfully useless nuggets that you get for seemingly every trackpad, audio card or GPU that you have the bad luck to be outfitted with). Services are just background programs a) without UI and b) that support or provide system or application functions. Dozens flare in and out of existence as you use Windows, mostly at startup, and most of them provide completely abstract functionality, such as providing network APIs for other services to use.
That said, Peter's answer is likely what you meant to find out, but I think it should be spelled out that it's not necessarily connected to the equivalent of Windows Services. (If you're looking to build such a thing on OS X, look up daemons and launchd.)
"launchd"
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launchd