Finding the Child Window inside a Microsoft RemoteApp Programmatically

Question

Background

I'm using SendKeys() to send keyboard commands to the active window, but I'm not having any luck finding the child window when the application is running through RemoteApp. It all works as expected when I run the application locally.

Microsoft RemoteApp allows users to connect to applications through the RDP protocol, but instead of showing the entire remote Virtual machine, it just shows the application window. To the end user, there is no difference between an application running under RemoteApp and it running on their desktop.

I've been using ManagedSpy to determine the class name of the .NET application window so that I can use the Win32 API function FindWindowEx to make one of the child windows active, and it works well. However, I'm having a problem when the application is running over RemoteApp.

I can still use the .NET Process.GetProcessesByName() to find the application, I just have to have it invoke mstsc.exe:

IntPtr hwndChild = IntPtr.Zero;
Process[] processess = Process.GetProcessesByName("mstsc");
IntPtr appHandle = IntPtr.Zero;

foreach (Process p in processess)
{
    if ((p.MainWindowHandle != IntPtr.Zero))
    {
        appHandle = p.MainWindowHandle;
    }
}

if (appHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
{
    MessageBox.Show("Application is not Running.");
    return;
}

However, I can't use FindWindowEx in the same way. This question revolves around that.

For the unmanaged code to tell me what windows mstsc.exe has active, I used Spy++, but for mstsc.exe it comes back with a different class name, called RAIL_WINDOW:

alt text

Here is the code I'm using to find the Child Window:

[DllImport("USER32.DLL")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr parentHandle, IntPtr childAfter, string className, string windowTitle);
hwndChild = FindWindowEx(appHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "RAIL_WINDOW", "MyApplication (Remote)");
SetForegroundWindow(hwndChild);

Questions

I can use Spy++ to highlight the active child window in the RemoteApp version of the application, and I get RAIL_WINDOW, but I cannot seem to access this window programmatically. Given the code above, what am I missing to be able to do so?
Are there other ways of sending keyboard strokes to an application running over Remote App?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '10 at 21:45

2

Knowing how Microsoft does things, I'll bet the "rail window" is nothing more than a dumb, local proxy that doesn't bother responding to what SendKeys is sending. I haven't looked, but I'll bet that ends up sending WM_CHAR messages, to which a dumb proxy probably wouldn't bother responding. Instead, try sending it WM_KEYUP and WM_KEYDOWN messages manually and see if that works, given that I expect it would transmit those and mouse clicks (and what not) rather than the translated versions.

answered Oct 05 '10 at 21:45

Phileosophos

304
1
6

1

Microsoft docs: "Certain classes of user input are not directly received by the RAIL window/icon as keyboard or mouse input. Examples include right-clicking the window's taskbar icon; key combinations to minimize, maximize, or restore all windows; and all user interactions with notification icons. These interactions are posted to the RAIL window/icon as non-keyboard or non-mouse messages, and, hence, cannot be sent over the core RDP channel. The client sends these interactions to the server as RAIL Virtual Channel messages." https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc242508.aspx – George Stocker Sep 13 '18 at 13:35
Looks like you were right; there doesn't appear to be a way to do this. – George Stocker Sep 13 '18 at 13:36

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 28 '14 at 18:00

0

And you can probably take advantage of handling IMsTscAxEvents::OnRemoteWindowDisplayed event that gives you the proper window handle at the right time without calling FindWindowEx, etc.

answered Jul 28 '14 at 18:00

Alexander V

8,351
4
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47

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 05 '10 at 10:32

0

What commands are you sending using SendKeys()?

It may be better to look for an alternative solution instead of using `SendKeys()'.

answered Oct 05 '10 at 10:32

kyndigs

3,074
1
18
22

I'm sending keyboard commands. What else can I use other than Sendkeys for programmatically sending keyboard commands to the active window? – George Stocker Oct 05 '10 at 11:45

Finding the Child Window inside a Microsoft RemoteApp Programmatically

Background

Questions

3 Answers3