C# Screen size without references in interactive

Question

I want to get the screen size of the primary screen, without adding any references (e.g. WinForms or Presentation). I found a similar question here, however there is no solution which doesn't include downloading or something like that.

But I want to make a method, which can be executed in the C# interactive on any other pc. Therefore I need a solution that doesn't reference other stuff than the standard (E.g. System, System.Core, ... is allowed).

I do know this is possible with

System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds;

but as this requires the System.Windows.Forms reference, it's not suitable for me. But basically the result of this snippet is what I want to get without references.

You could just use the winapi call to get it. You just need some pinvoke into your code using msdn "multiple display monitors reference" to find the calls you need. — Paul Farry, May 02 '17 at 14:08
Could you provide a code snippet? Coding is best learnt with examples. — MetaColon, May 02 '17 at 14:13
I believe this answer might help http://stackoverflow.com/a/43656496/7396801 — mykeels, May 02 '17 at 14:16
@mykeels The problem with this solution is that it uses a reference to System.Drawing — MetaColon, May 02 '17 at 14:20
*Why* do you not want to use any of the normal references? Any time you have a very unusual requirement, please explain it. — Jon Skeet, May 02 '17 at 15:24
@JonSkeet As I wrote, I want to execute it in the interactive on other PCs, where no references but the standard ones exist. — MetaColon, May 02 '17 at 15:25
Ah, missed that. Possibly "in the C# Interactive Window in Visual Studio" would have been clearer - but sorry for missing that before. — Jon Skeet, May 02 '17 at 15:27
@JonSkeet Don't tell me this is possible... Write it an answer and I'll accept it. — MetaColon, May 02 '17 at 15:31
Well I don't know whether it would work for your particular scenario, but it's worth a try :) — Jon Skeet, May 02 '17 at 15:51

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '17 at 22:02

Here's an example I came up with.

I have noticed that it does not work correctly on High-DPI Screens. It will report the apparent resolution, not the actual resolution.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var size = GetScreenSize();
        Console.WriteLine(size.Length + " x " + size.Width);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static Size GetScreenSize()
    {
        return new Size(GetSystemMetrics(0), GetSystemMetrics(1));
    }

    struct Size
    {
        public Size(int l, int w)
        {
            Length = l;
            Width = w;
        }

        public int Length { get; set; }
        public int Width { get; set; }
    }

    [DllImport("User32.dll", ExactSpelling = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    public static extern int GetSystemMetrics(int nIndex);

Unfortuantely, I won't be able to test it till evening, but if this works it's an awesome solution. — MetaColon, May 05 '17 at 04:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '17 at 14:08

0

If you don't want to use those libraries, You'll probably need to use native methods. I can't think of a way around this, as you'll need to communicate with the system any way you go.

A good place to start would be the source of System.Windows.Forms.Screen

Here's a link to the source. I bet you could strip down their code, and get the bare minimum.

answered May 02 '17 at 14:08

Adam Schiavone

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I actually tried, but failed. Could you provide a code example to achieve this? It's okay, if some native stuff is included, I just wouldn't call myself experienced with it. – MetaColon May 02 '17 at 14:11
I'll give it a shot when I've got some free time (if somebody else doesn't beat me to it) It may be a few hours though, so I hope you're not in a time crunch. – Adam Schiavone May 02 '17 at 14:25
I'm not, so take your time :) – MetaColon May 02 '17 at 14:27
I actually posted a solution as well - however this one isn't very beautiful and save, so maybe you could still post an answer as well. – MetaColon May 02 '17 at 15:24

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 02 '17 at 15:21

I actually found a solution to this:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
static void Main()
{
    EnumWindows(E, IntPtr.Zero);
    Console.Write($"{_.Item1}x{_.Item2}");
}


struct R
{
    int l;
    int t;
    public int r;
    public int b;

    public override string ToString() => $"{l},{t},{r},{b}";
    public bool i() => l == 0 && r != 00;
}

static (int, int) _;

static bool E(IntPtr w, IntPtr l)
{
    var r = new R();
    GetWindowRect(w, ref r);
    if (r.i() && _.Item1 == 0)
        _ = (r.r, r.b);
    return true;
}

delegate bool P(IntPtr w, IntPtr l);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool EnumWindows(P e, IntPtr l);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool GetWindowRect(IntPtr w, ref R r);
Main()

Paste this into your interactive and it should output the screen resolution - at least it does for me.

Don't ask me how it works, it's stumped together from different tutorials and pressed into the interactive. Therefore I can't guarantee this will work on every pc.

Could somebody else please test this?

C# Screen size without references in interactive

3 Answers3

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