Is there a way to hook mouse events for a specific button in a windows form

Question

I want to hook the WM_MOUSEDOWN and WM_MOUSEUP events from a specific button inside a specific window. I am thinking that SetWindowsHookEx will hook the messages I want. and Fin

Answer 1

SetWindowsHookEx can be used to hook a specific thread or all threads. You cant hook a specific handle. You can get the specific thread or all threads of the windows forms application & hook them, but it doesn't solve your problem, this is just a performance consideration.

In the callback of the MouseProc you can filter the events WM_LBUTTONDOWN, WM_LBUTTONUP using wParam.

You can get handle to the window to which this mouse event is going from lParam

MOUSEHOOKSTRUCT * pMouseHookStruct = (MOUSEHOOKSTRUCT *) lParam;
HWMD hWnd = pMouseHookStruct->hwnd;

from hwnd you can get all details of the window, and you can check if it is the same windows forms window.

If you want mouse events of only a specific button, you can get the UI Object details from the mouse clicked point & filter the events accordingly (using UIAutomation)

CoCreateInstance(__uuidof(CUIAutomation), NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, __uuidof(IUIAutomation), (void**)&pAutomation);

pAutomation->ElementFromPoint(*pPoint, &pIUIAutomationElement);

You can get the button name, rect coordinates, hot keys etc from IUIAutomationElement