Getting UI text from external app in C#

Question

Is it possible to get UI text from an external application in C#.

In particular, is there a way to read Unicode text from a label (I assume it\'s a normal Windows l

Answer 1

You could do it if that unicode text is actually a window with a caption by sending a WM_GETTEXT message.

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage (IntPtr hWnd, int msg, int Param, System.Text.StringBuilder text);

System.Text.StringBuilder text = new System.Text.StringBuilder(255) ;  // or length from call with GETTEXTLENGTH
int RetVal = Win32.SendMessage( hWnd , WM_GETTEXT, text.Capacity, text);

If it is just painted on the canvas you might have some luck if you know what framework the application uses. If it uses WinForms or Borland's VCL you could use that knowledge to get to the text.