C#: Is it possible to monitor button clicks from an external Windows application?

Question

I would like to monitor button clicks in an external Windows Forms application from my own application.

I have found examples that allow me to 'click' buttons in an external application (using Windows API), but this is not what I want to do.

The reason for this is that I would like to do some logging on an external application that a company made for us. They are willing to program the logging into that application, but it is overly expensive.

Can anyone help me with this?

Regards, Reinier

Answer 1

Usually this is done by installing a Windows hook. The API is SetWindowsHookEx (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644990(v=vs.85).aspx ). It's a really advanced task. The monitoring code can be implemented using .NET Framework and C# or VB.NET, but it would be better to use C or C++ for this.