How to mimic any particular desktop app commands in c#?

Question

Sorry for the noob question, I just want some pointers on what I need to learn to be able to achieve such tasks.

I want to know what skill-set and tools I will need to automate control any particular software. My goal is to simplify tasks which is similar to creating a micro.

However, I understand a lot of macro programs uses screen x and y coordinates, but I believe a better method would be reading memories with the help such as cheat engine perhaps? is that the tool which I will need? or there is alternative which suites the tasks better?

basically I want let say, a C# winform perhaps, with certain buttons which will help me execute a series of commands. It would be similar to a game bot program but not made for games, but for other office related tasks. such as open files, basic editing and close.

for example:

open excel open file xyz read cell B4 value(perhaps I can use that value elsewhere and display it on the winform or even grab and do some further calculation in C# and throw it back into excel) move to F1 and enter value 1234 save file exit excel

I'm basically looking for a way to make a macro any program not just excel, but without the downside of using x and y coordinates because if program window moves by any chance, it would cause the macro to malfunction.

Therefore, is reading memory of the program consider the best solution? So I can interact with files, data, and commands for any program with the intention to do some desktop usage automation.

Alexei Levenkov · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-13 23:48:02Z

0

"reading memory of the program" is entertaining, but not necessary reliable way to automate anything.

It is useful for cheats as person who cheat normally willing to go long way to make cheat work, so will check for correct versions, get particular cheat patch/version, disable all protection features and so on.

For general macro creation it is much less useful as you'll go against built in barriers (like security ACLs, address space randomization - ASR, auto updates, or JIT compilation) and explicitly created ones (like debugger protection). I believe normal people are less likely to restrict features to make macro to work...

answered Jul 13, 2012 at 23:48

Alexei Levenkov

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2 Comments

user1112612 Over a year ago

thanks for your input! I understand the difficulty it may be involved and going the long way seems overkill. However, if I was to let say allow excel to talk to word? wouldn't it be necessary to get into memory extracting? or is there some sort of API which allows me to extract data from program to program. Let say I copy data D3 from excel and input onto notepad line 12.

Alexei Levenkov Over a year ago

Excel can talk to Word (normally other way around) OLE and COM automation, there is not much "to allow to talk". Notepad is strange target for macro/automation so naturally it does not provide any built in way to manipulate it, also again reading memory is awful way to talk to it (use windows messages). There is no general way, so if you have particular needs - ask it again with particular scoped (preferably practical) goals.

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