You need to write a Python script that will track the switching of the active window using the Pywin32 library.

    1 answer 1

    Here is the original: https://gist.github.com/keturn/6695625

    eventTypes describes which events need to be monitored and left win32con.EVENT_OBJECT_FOCUS for this question.

    The code below tracks window focus changes:

     # using pywin32 for constants and ctypes for everything else seems a little # indecisive, but whatevs. import win32con import sys import ctypes import ctypes.wintypes user32 = ctypes.windll.user32 ole32 = ctypes.windll.ole32 kernel32 = ctypes.windll.kernel32 WinEventProcType = ctypes.WINFUNCTYPE( None, ctypes.wintypes.HANDLE, ctypes.wintypes.DWORD, ctypes.wintypes.HWND, ctypes.wintypes.LONG, ctypes.wintypes.LONG, ctypes.wintypes.DWORD, ctypes.wintypes.DWORD ) # The types of events we want to listen for, and the names we'll use for # them in the log output. Pick from # http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd318066(v=vs.85).aspx eventTypes = { # win32con.EVENT_SYSTEM_FOREGROUND: "Foreground", win32con.EVENT_OBJECT_FOCUS: "Focus", # win32con.EVENT_OBJECT_SHOW: "Show", # win32con.EVENT_SYSTEM_DIALOGSTART: "Dialog", # win32con.EVENT_SYSTEM_CAPTURESTART: "Capture", # win32con.EVENT_SYSTEM_MINIMIZEEND: "UnMinimize" } # limited information would be sufficient, but our platform doesn't have it. processFlag = getattr(win32con, 'PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION', win32con.PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION) threadFlag = getattr(win32con, 'THREAD_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION', win32con.THREAD_QUERY_INFORMATION) # store last event time for displaying time between events lastTime = 0 def log(msg): print(msg) def logError(msg): print(msg, file=sys.stderr) def getProcessID(dwEventThread, hwnd): # It's possible to have a window we can get a PID out of when the thread # isn't accessible, but it's also possible to get called with no window, # so we have two approaches. hThread = kernel32.OpenThread(threadFlag, 0, dwEventThread) if hThread: try: processID = kernel32.GetProcessIdOfThread(hThread) if not processID: logError("Couldn't get process for thread %s: %s" % (hThread, ctypes.WinError())) finally: kernel32.CloseHandle(hThread) else: errors = ["No thread handle for %s: %s" % (dwEventThread, ctypes.WinError(),)] if hwnd: processID = ctypes.wintypes.DWORD() threadID = user32.GetWindowThreadProcessId(hwnd, ctypes.byref(processID)) if threadID != dwEventThread: logError("Window thread != event thread? %s != %s" % (threadID, dwEventThread)) if processID: processID = processID.value else: errors.append("GetWindowThreadProcessID(%s) didn't work either: %s" % (hwnd, ctypes.WinError())) processID = None else: processID = None if not processID: for err in errors: logError(err) return processID def getProcessFilename(processID): hProcess = kernel32.OpenProcess(processFlag, 0, processID) if not hProcess: logError("OpenProcess(%s) failed: %s" % (processID, ctypes.WinError())) return None try: filenameBufferSize = ctypes.wintypes.DWORD(4096) filename = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(filenameBufferSize.value) kernel32.QueryFullProcessImageNameW(hProcess, 0, ctypes.byref(filename), ctypes.byref(filenameBufferSize)) return filename.value finally: kernel32.CloseHandle(hProcess) def callback(hWinEventHook, event, hwnd, idObject, idChild, dwEventThread, dwmsEventTime): global lastTime length = user32.GetWindowTextLengthW(hwnd) title = ctypes.create_unicode_buffer(length + 1) user32.GetWindowTextW(hwnd, title, length + 1) processID = getProcessID(dwEventThread, hwnd) shortName = '?' if processID: filename = getProcessFilename(processID) if filename: shortName = '\\'.join(filename.rsplit('\\', 2)[-2:]) if hwnd: hwnd = hex(hwnd) elif idObject == win32con.OBJID_CURSOR: hwnd = '<Cursor>' log("%s:%04.2f\t%-10s\tW:%-8s\tP:%-8d\tT:%-8d\t%s\t%s" % ( dwmsEventTime, float(dwmsEventTime - lastTime)/1000, eventTypes.get(event, hex(event)), hwnd, processID or -1, dwEventThread or -1, shortName, title.value )) lastTime = dwmsEventTime def setHook(WinEventProc, eventType): return user32.SetWinEventHook( eventType, eventType, 0, WinEventProc, 0, 0, win32con.WINEVENT_OUTOFCONTEXT ) def main(): ole32.CoInitialize(0) WinEventProc = WinEventProcType(callback) user32.SetWinEventHook.restype = ctypes.wintypes.HANDLE hookIDs = [setHook(WinEventProc, et) for et in eventTypes.keys()] if not any(hookIDs): print('SetWinEventHook failed') sys.exit(1) msg = ctypes.wintypes.MSG() while user32.GetMessageW(ctypes.byref(msg), 0, 0, 0) != 0: user32.TranslateMessageW(msg) user32.DispatchMessageW(msg) for hookID in hookIDs: user32.UnhookWinEvent(hookID) ole32.CoUninitialize() if __name__ == '__main__': main()