How do I set the position of a third party program,using vbscript,to always display at a specific position on the screen?
VBScript and Windows Script Host don't have this functionality out of the box, so the short answer is "You can't".
The long answer is: If you really need to do this, you can use a third-party tool for this purpose, such as AutoIt. You could also write a custom utility (in C++, C# with PInvoke etc) that will utilize the appropriate Windows API functions (FindWindow, SetWindowPos etc) and call it from your script.
I don't think it will be possible using VBScript. As Helen mentioned, it could be done with AutoIt or in C++, C#, etc.
Using AutoIt, you could either write a script that always ran, and checked to see if the Window of the third party app exists, and then move it to the location you desire... Or better, create a launcher script to start the third party application and place it at the exact location. If you can't install AutoIt on all the pc's this will be running on, you can also compile the script to a stand alone exe.
Related
I work in a secure data environment so my ability to install software is pretty limited. I have Notepad++, but don't have TextFx (and I read it doesn't work in the current version anyway). I don't have the Python plugin for Notepad++ either. No AHK, etc. OS is Windows XP.
I'm trying to find another way to write a basic script that I can use to insert a time and date stamp into any text editor. I did some googling but couldn't find any specific examples.
I noticed that Notepad uses F5 for date/time stamp, so I tried to find the file/code it uses for that, but no luck.
Any tips? Looking for something like a batch file I can assign a KB shortcut to use across text editors, Word, or whatever. Thanks!
What it sounds like you are looking for would be a key macro. The functionality you are describing is implemented within the program itself, and is not available for global usage throughout the OS.
As you are on Windows XP I am not sure what options are available without a software installation. There is no built in macro recorder for Windows XP unfortunately.
If you are in Word, then you could use the built in Office macros to accomplish this. How exactly depends on your version of Office.
I obviously don't think it would work as it is. Its more like, does Windows internal architecture allows for some third party SW to integrate in between? From what I read about Compiz, I believe it creates its own window, and somehow mixes graphics from System X to its own. But it still has to catch events like EXIT button and so on.
Does Windows even allow this? Let 3rd program to scan for input of another window? And more, catching output of GUI and replace it?
Does Windows even allow this? Let 3rd
program to scan for input of another
window? And more, catching output of
GUI and replace it? Thanks.
It is certainly possible. See WindowBlinds for an example. Just note that Windows "officially" does not support this, applications like WindowBlinds use API hooking, subclassing etc. to perform their deeds.
Windows does not natively allow it - it has its own compositor framework built in called DWM that does much of the same internal functionality as Compiz. However, glitzy graphics that are systemwide are reserved for the OS to perform, sadly. As other people mention, doing this as a 3rd-party app is going to be really hacky and difficult.
API Hooking:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/hooksys.aspx
Also, look at:
http://yodm-3d.en.uptodown.com/
A free 'Compiz' for Windows.
what's a good way to scripting or creating programs unders windows?
How about python?
You will need Notepad, and to learn JScript (not Javascript... JScript), VBScript or Batch. Then you can easily create small scripts, somewhat equivalent to bash shell scripts on Linux.
For the first two, you can read the Windows Script Host documentation.
Windows Powershell is becoming the new Windows scripting language. Being a full .NET language, it is inevitably much more powerful that the horrible old batch scripts one used to have to write (and still retains much of the syntactic sugar of scripting/shell languages).
You can do VBScript without the need to install anything.
Open notepad and enter the following text:
MsgBox "Hello"
Save it as filename.vbs
Double click the file you just created, congratulations - you just created and ran a VBScript.
I'd like to plug AutoIt. It's a free download and comes with it's own editor that can be quickly/easily installed anywhere. The language is very rich and comes with a large library of user defined functions. Integrated context-sensitive help with syntax display. There's even a GUI editor. A final plus is that it compiles to .exe so will run on any win2k/xp/vista/2k3/2k8/7 PC.
I always use Python for scripting on Windows.
A vague question usually gets a vague response.
Download a compiler or interpreter and find a tutorial.
With more information we can better point you in the right direction
I would say there are three clever choices here:
Scripting: Use JSCRIPT because much of what you learn about JSCRIPT can be used in Javascript. You can either graduate to Javascript/AJAX in the browser, or Microsoft .HTA apps.
Or, you could use Python because it has standard modules to do just about anything a sysadmin would do plus addons to access Windows .COM objects and WMI. You can then either graduate to Python on a UNIX platform, Jython (which is Python in the JVM) or IronPython which opens up the entire world of .NET for you.
And there is of course, the non-scripting choice which is about creating programs under Windows. If you choose this you probably have an end-game in mind that is beyond scripting, so start with SharpDevelop and IronPython. Then, as you gain confidence, start working with C# still using the same Sharpdevelop toolset. With this choice you can also graduate to UNIX applications using the MONO .NET environment although if you want to do GUI apps on UNIX you will need to use GTK# instead of Windows Forms.
I need to write an app that reads a config file with info on the menu bars it needs to create.
Normally, I'd just use java, but I need the application to have the least run-time dependencies possible, this includes not forcing the user to download anything, even JRE, let alone something like NET Framework.
So I need something that can compile to an EXE (windows only for now), and that will allow me to CODE the GUI, so I can dynamically create it from my config.
BTW: something like C++ is a bit too low level, all I need is to create menus, and display HTMLs in a panel.
How about wxPython together with py2exe?
There is a nice tutorial on how to do it here.
If Java's too high-level and C++ too low-level, there ins't much in-between. Maybe Delphi?
I wouldn't totally write off using Java and/or Python for a few reasons.
1) py2exe can compile your Python code to an exe.
2) GCJ can compile your Java code to an exe.
Delphi is best chose for you. Because Delphi compile source code into native x86.
Unless you have serious reasons to avoid interpreted languages, I would suggest you better look into ways of packaging or compiling interpreted scripts because doing this will likely reduce your learning and development time.
I would write a simple GUI in Tcl/Tk, and then package it as a Starpack.
ActiveState provides a distribution (ActiveTCL) and a decent editor (Komodo Edit), and it is fairly easy to get simple GUIs going with Tk. Check out TkDocs for some hand holding.
Once you're done, you can package your code, a Tcl runtime, a database, and a virtual filesystem, all into a single executable that you can easily distribute.
Earwicker is right. You can use HTA:
http://www.interclasse.com/scripts/htanotepad.php
But if you know C++, then creating this type of an application is actually very easy with Visual C++. Use MFC, and statically link everything. You can draw the menu in the resource editor, and attach events to the menu items. I wouldn't use HTML if I were you. Just use regular Windows controls. But if you're really set on using HTML, you can embed a Browser control in the formview.
Have you considered D ? It has a syntax that is like a mixture of Java, C++ and Python with the ability to make native windows apps. The tutorials on dprogramming.com are great to get up and going with the language. For quick GUIs you'd be interested in The D Forms Library and the Entice Designer.
Here are some short video tutorials to get up and running with Entice.
Alternatively, have you tried Qt & Qt Creator? It takes a lot of the hair pulling out of C++ Programming and it's also cross-platform.
You say:
all I need is to create menus, and
display HTMLs in a panel.
A lot like a Web browser, then. If it's going to run on Windows, then the user has IE. Why not use IE to do all the work for you?
You can make something a lot like an .exe with IE, called an .hta:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536496(VS.85).aspx
I want a small (< 30MB) standalone Windows executable (a single file) that creates a window which asks the user for the location of a directory and then launches a different program in that directory.
This executable has to run on XP, Vista, Server 2003, and Server 2008 versions of Windows in 32-bits and 64 bits on x86-64 architecture as well as Itanium chips.
It would be spectacular if we only had to build it once in order to run it on all these platforms, but that is not a requirement. This is for a proprietary system, so GPL code is off-limits.
What is the fastest way to put this together?
These are some things I'm looking into, so if you have info about their viability, I'm all about it:
Perl/Tk using perl2exe to get the binary.
Ruby with wxruby
Learn MFC programming and do it the right way like everybody else.
What about a WSH script? It won't be an exe, right, but to ask for a folder I don't see the need for an exe file, much less a 30Mb one...
A 1Kb script, save it as whatever name you like with vbs extension and run it. This, in case it's not clear, asks you for a folder name and then runs calc.exe from the system32 subdirectory. You can of course do a lot better than this in 2 or 4 Kb.
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
win = InputBox("Please type your Windows folder location.")
If Right(win,1) <> "\" Then
win = win & "\"
End If
WshShell.Run win & "system32\calc.exe"
To add a Folder Browser dialog instead of an InputBox, check this out.
Clear benefits are:
Simplicity (well, VB is ugly, but you can use JScript if you prefer), no need to compile it!
Compatibility, works on every windows machine I have available (from 98 onwards)
I'd use .NET and WinForms. The idea of scripted solution is appealing, but in practice I often find you end up jumping through hoops to do anything beyond the basic case and still don't have the flexibility to do everything you want.
Quickest way on Windows for a lightweight and fast GUI? One word.. Delphi! It lacks the 64 bit support for now but then FreePascal would come to the rescue.
Having a small stand-alone application and developing it quickly are, I'm sorry to say, usually conflicting requirements.
To be honest, given how incredibly simple the application is, I would write it in C with direct Win32 calls: one call to SHBrowseForFolder() to get the directory, and one to ShellExecuteEx() to run the program. Even MFC is far too heavy-weight for such a modest application. Set the C runtime to be statically linked and you should be able to keep the size of the stand-alone executable to less than 100k. A decent Windows C coder should be able to knock that up in less than an hour, assuming you have one to hand.
Python with either wxWidgets or Tkinter should be able to do this with almost no effort at all. Runs on everything, and py2exe will get you a standalone executable.
Tcl/tk is one solution. You can have a single file executable (including custom images, dlls, etc) using something called a "starpack" -- a virtual filesystem that is both tcl interpreter and application code. I think it would weigh in at maybe a couple megabytes.
From your specifications it would take me personally maybe 15 minutes to get a first working version.
Tcl/Tk has a BSD license.
For all of its flaws, Visual Basic has historically been great for super-simple apps like this.
I agree with the Tcl/Tk answer above. For more information about the starpack that he refers to, see: http://www.equi4.com/tclkit/ it's a Tcl/Tk interpreter available for various OS's all in about 1MB. In the past there apparently has been concerned about the look and feel of Tcl/Tk UI's, but this has been addressed by a new framework named "Tile" that supports the native look and feel of the user's OS.
For a quick and dirty GUI program like you said, you can use an AutoIt script. You can even compile to an exe.
For an GUI example of AutoIt, you can check my stdout redirect script in a previous answer here
wxWidgets; it's cross platform, free, open source and easy to learn
You could do this in MFC and have an executable in under 100k. In general, if you want to keep the size of your executables down, you can use UPX to perform exe compression. If you want an example, take a look at uTorrent. It's a full featured BitTorrent app in less than 300k of executable.
I use HTA (HTML Application) for quick-and-dirty form & script applications. See Microsoft's HTA Developers Center for details and examples. This basically uses HTML for the form, and any HTML-accessible scripting language for the script. Normal browser security is bypassed so that you can get at almost all OS internals. The above site also contains links to several tools that nearly automate the scripting part for you.
PyQt works really well for this. Binaries for Windows here:
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/download
A good book here:
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Python-Prentice-Software-Development/dp/0132354187/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295369454&sr=8-1
And you can freeze these using various methods if you need exe(s).
Similar to what Vinko Vrsalovic said, you can use a HTA application. It is as easy as building a webpage with windows scripting host functionality. I have built a few utilities with jscript and it is really easy and quick
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536496(VS.85).aspx
These responses are unbelievable.
Visual Studio Forms editor lets you draw out WinForms and autogenerates the boilerplate GUI code (which is a pain in the ass at best for most other languages and toolkits). Then you can use C# or any other .NET language. .NET has stock widgets for file pickers. I could write that script in 20 minutes and it will run on every one of your target platforms for free. Draw out the GUI, drag-n-drop a file picker, fill out maybe two hooks to do the "launch a different file than they wanted" thing, done.
I suggest Autohotkey (AHK) or Autoit. Both support win95+ (with caveats for certain functions). They can be compiled into small .exe without external dependency (besides native DLL's).
Pros:
small size
easy to write code
useful for simple - complex operations
can create GUI easily
Cons:
learning curve (as syntax is unusual)
30MB is pretty huge!
Qt (C++) may be the best choice. It is portable, quick to develop and relatively fast to run. With UPX (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) your program will be 10M+.
Qt (Python) is OK too, but will be slower.
If you want it less than 1M and/or you want it quick, you can write it in C with win32 api, or use Delphi.