Screenshot method generates black images

Question

After failing to use the control.drawtobitmap in c#, my second option was to take screenshots of the desktop and crop out the desired sections. My hiccup shows up once i sw

Answer 1

I faced with the same problem and I couldn't use CopyFromScreen method because my form with WebBrowser could be hidded. PrintWindow method also didn't work well generating images with black areas, especially when my MDI form partially covered by MDI parent form.

Finally I used OleDraw method as in this topic on SO, but integrated it in a class derived from WebBrowser. Basically, it just overrides standard control reaction to WM_PRINT message. This allows to do normal Control.DrawToBitmap not only for the WebBrowser, but for a form with WebBrowser in it as well. This also works if the form is hidden (covered by another form, including MDI parent form) and should work when user has locked session with Win+L (I haven't tested it).

public class WebBrowserEx : WebBrowser
{
    private const uint DVASPECT_CONTENT = 1;

    [DllImport("ole32.dll", PreserveSig = false)]
    private static extern void OleDraw([MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.IUnknown)] object pUnk,
        uint dwAspect,
        IntPtr hdcDraw,
        [In] ref System.Drawing.Rectangle lprcBounds
    );

    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {
        const int WM_PRINT = 0x0317;

        switch (m.Msg)
        {
            case WM_PRINT:
                Rectangle browserRect = new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, this.Height);

                // Don't know why, but drawing with OleDraw directly on HDC from m.WParam.
                // results in badly scaled (stretched) image of the browser.
                // So, drawing to an intermediate bitmap first.
                using (Bitmap browserBitmap = new Bitmap(browserRect.Width, browserRect.Height))
                {
                    using (var graphics = Graphics.FromImage(browserBitmap))
                    {
                        var hdc = graphics.GetHdc();
                        OleDraw(this.ActiveXInstance, DVASPECT_CONTENT, hdc, ref browserRect);
                        graphics.ReleaseHdc(hdc);
                    }

                    using (var graphics = Graphics.FromHdc(m.WParam))
                    {
                        graphics.DrawImage(browserBitmap, Point.Empty);
                    }
                }
                // ignore default WndProc
                return;

        }

        base.WndProc(ref m);
    }
}