Detecting User Activity

Question

I need to create a program that monitors a computer for activity. Such as a mouse move, mouse click or keyboard input. I don\'t need to record what has happened just that th

Answer 1

Thank you LordCover. This code is from here. This class takes control of the keyboard and mouse controls for you. You can use in a timer like this:

private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    listBox1.Items.Add(Win32.GetIdleTime().ToString());
    if (Win32.GetIdleTime() > 60000) // 1 minute
    {
        textBox1.Text = "SLEEPING NOW";
    }
}

Main code for control. Paste to your form code.

internal struct LASTINPUTINFO
{
    public uint cbSize;
    public uint dwTime;
}

public class Win32
{
    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    public static extern bool LockWorkStation();

    [DllImport("User32.dll")]
    private static extern bool GetLastInputInfo(ref LASTINPUTINFO plii);

    [DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern uint GetLastError();

    public static uint GetIdleTime()
    {
        LASTINPUTINFO lastInPut = new LASTINPUTINFO();
        lastInPut.cbSize = (uint)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(lastInPut);
        GetLastInputInfo(ref lastInPut);

        return ((uint)Environment.TickCount - lastInPut.dwTime);
    }

    public static long GetLastInputTime()
    {
        LASTINPUTINFO lastInPut = new LASTINPUTINFO();
        lastInPut.cbSize = (uint)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.SizeOf(lastInPut);
        if (!GetLastInputInfo(ref lastInPut))
        {
            throw new Exception(GetLastError().ToString());
        }

        return lastInPut.dwTime;
    }
}

Answer 2

You need to set a global keyboard hook and a global mouse hook. This will result in all keyboard and mouse activity being passed to your application. You can remember the time of the last such event, and check periodically if more than your example 15 minutes have passed since that time.

Take a look here for an example project. You may also find this useful.