Detect Active Window Changed Using C# Without Polling

Detect active window changed using C# without polling

Create a new windows forms project, add a textbox, make it multiline, and set the textbox Dock property to fill, name it Log and paste in the following code (you'll need to add System.Runtime.InteropServices to your usings)...

    WinEventDelegate dele = null;

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        dele = new WinEventDelegate(WinEventProc);
        IntPtr m_hhook = SetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND, EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND, IntPtr.Zero, dele, 0, 0, WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT);
    }

    delegate void WinEventDelegate(IntPtr hWinEventHook, uint eventType, IntPtr hwnd, int idObject, int idChild, uint dwEventThread, uint dwmsEventTime);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr SetWinEventHook(uint eventMin, uint eventMax, IntPtr hmodWinEventProc, WinEventDelegate lpfnWinEventProc, uint idProcess, uint idThread, uint dwFlags);

    private const uint WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT = 0;
    private const uint EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND = 3;

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

    private string GetActiveWindowTitle()
    {
        const int nChars = 256;
        IntPtr handle = IntPtr.Zero;
        StringBuilder Buff = new StringBuilder(nChars);
        handle = GetForegroundWindow();

        if (GetWindowText(handle, Buff, nChars) > 0)
        {
            return Buff.ToString();
        }
        return null;
    }

    public void WinEventProc(IntPtr hWinEventHook, uint eventType, IntPtr hwnd, int idObject, int idChild, uint dwEventThread, uint dwmsEventTime)
    {
        Log.Text += GetActiveWindowTitle() + "\r\n";
    } 

Detect active window changed using C# with a console application

It can be changed to run as a console application with a few changes. Here is a working code.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            dele = new WinEventDelegate(WinEventProc);
            IntPtr m_hhook = SetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND, EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND, IntPtr.Zero, dele, 0, 0, WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT);
            Application.Run(); //<----
        }

        static WinEventDelegate dele = null; //STATIC

        delegate void WinEventDelegate(IntPtr hWinEventHook, uint eventType, IntPtr hwnd, int idObject, int idChild, uint dwEventThread, uint dwmsEventTime);

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr SetWinEventHook(uint eventMin, uint eventMax, IntPtr hmodWinEventProc, WinEventDelegate lpfnWinEventProc, uint idProcess, uint idThread, uint dwFlags);

        private const uint WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT = 0;
        private const uint EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND = 3;

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder text, int count);

        private static string GetActiveWindowTitle() //STATIC
        {
            const int nChars = 256;
            IntPtr handle = IntPtr.Zero;
            StringBuilder Buff = new StringBuilder(nChars);
            handle = GetForegroundWindow();

            if (GetWindowText(handle, Buff, nChars) > 0)
            {
                return Buff.ToString();
            }
            return null;
        }

        public static void WinEventProc(IntPtr hWinEventHook, uint eventType, IntPtr hwnd, int idObject, int idChild, uint dwEventThread, uint dwmsEventTime) //STATIC
        {
            Console.WriteLine(GetActiveWindowTitle());
        }
    }
}

Catch active window switch (also in same application, for example Chrome tabs)

However I have noticed that it does not react in case Google Chrome is
opened and I am switching between Tabs.

Switching between tabs cause focus changes, so you can use EVENT_OBJECT_FOCUS (in addition) to cover this situation.

Is there Windows system event on active window changed?

Yes, you can use SetWinEventHook function.

hEvent = SetWinEventHook(EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND , 
    EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND , NULL, 
    WinEventProcCallback, 0, 0, 
    WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT | WINEVENT_SKIPOWNPROCESS);

.......

VOID CALLBACK WinEventProcCallback ( HWINEVENTHOOK hWinEventHook, DWORD dwEvent, HWND hwnd, LONG idObject, LONG idChild, DWORD dwEventThread, DWORD dwmsEventTime)
{
    /* your code here */
}

Get active window without global hooks or polling GetActiveWindow?

I have never found a clean way to get notified. I use GetForegroundWindow with a timer. :(

c# - Get current window title

Can you stick it in a loop on another thread. Have two variables: previousWindow and currentWindow. Keep comparing them, when they change - you update your log file.

Determine when a third-party application becomes active

Thanks spender for the links. I've been able to use the information in those questions to create a reusable component that returns a Process object for the active window and triggers an event when it changes.

The code for this is available here: https://github.com/DanStevens/ActiveWindowWatcher/blob/master/ActiveWindowWatcher.cs

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