How to detect that the system is idle

[Mike Lewis]

Does anyone know how to detect that the user's system is idle -- that is, that there has been no keyboard or mouse activity for a given period?

I want a way of logging the user out of my application if they appear to be no longer sitting at their computer?

Thanks in advance.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[MrRum]

You could set a timer, hook the keyboard and the mouse and reset the timer everytime there is input in the keyboard and/or mouse buffer.
Rum am Morgen vorkommt Kummer und Sorgen... Cheers !

Mr. Rum

 

[Mike Lewis]

Dr Mr Rum,

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I think it is little more complicated than that.

Hooking the keyboard and mouse would be fine within my own application. But I would also need a way of knowing if there was any activity in any other apps currently running. I'm looking for a way of seeing keyboard and mouse activity in other apps as well as mine.

The reason is that my own app displays confidential data, and the client is worried that, if a user goes to lunch while the app is still active, a colleague can come along and snoop at the data. On the other hand, if the user has my app minimised, and is bashing away at, say, a word processor, I don't my app to time out.

Perhaps I'm asking for the impossible.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[MrRum]

You could place a low level hook, which captures input from all running threads (however, I do not think that this is supported on W95 and W98).
Rum am Morgen vorkommt Kummer und Sorgen... Cheers !

Mr. Rum

 

[Mike Lewis]

You could place a low level hook, which captures input from all running threads

Could you give me a rough idea how to do that please. I don't need any details -- just which API calls I should be looking at.

Many thanks.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[MrRum]

Check out SetWindowsHookEx, specify WH_KEYBOARD_LL and WH_MOUSE_LL....
Rum am Morgen vorkommt Kummer und Sorgen... Cheers !

Mr. Rum

 

[Mike Lewis]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[TJNweb]

Data about condition of processor keeps into regedit. If it can be usefull I will try to find this key

 

[Mike Lewis]

Data about condition of processor keeps into regedit. If it can be usefull I will try to find this key

That would be very useful. If you can give me more info, I'd be grateful. Hope it's not too much trouble.

Thanks.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[TJNweb]

Complete explanation is here:

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/5077/new/win9xcpu.html

 

[Mike Lewis]

Hi TJNWeb,

That looks great. I've taken a quick look, and the code looks reasonably clear (despite being in some strange language <bg>). I'll study it in more detail tonight.

Many thanks for the information.
Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk

 

[TJNweb]

Actually this way not always works correctly...
If I did I would use something other
For C++ from MSDN:
while ( bDoingBackgroundProcessing )
{
MSG msg;
while ( :eekMessage( &msg, NULL, 0, 0, PM_NOREMOVE ) )
{
if ( !PumpMessage( ) )
{
bDoingBackgroundProcessing = FALSE;
:ostQuitMessage( );
break;
}
}
// let MFC do its idle processing
LONG lIdle = 0;
while ( AfxGetApp()->OnIdle(lIdle++ ) )
;
// Perform some background processing here
// using another call to OnIdle
}

Low level detecting Idle Time in Windows described in Article ID: Q96422

I know that defenetly exist API to detect %usage of defined process if it can be usefull then I will try to find information about it.

 

[Mike Lewis]

TJNWeb,

You've given me plenty to work on. Many thanks. If I need more help, I'll come back.

Mike Lewis
Edinburgh, Scotland

http://www.ml-consult.demon.co.uk