Determine window position on macOS using swift (or Objective-C)

Question

I am looking for a way to determine the position and dimension of a window that is not part of my application in macOS using Swift (prefered) or Objective-C to program an overlay/hud. Is it possible to read a list of all processes and start from there or is there something similar to the getWindowHandle() function in the Windows api?

Code Different · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-20 11:04:29Z

3

Take a look at CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo:

import CoreGraphics 

if let windowList = CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo([.optionAll], kCGNullWindowID) as? [[String: AnyObject]] {
    for window in windowList {
        let number = window[kCGWindowNumber as String]!
        let bounds = CGRect(dictionaryRepresentation: window[kCGWindowBounds as String] as! CFDictionary)!
        
        let name = window[kCGWindowName as String] as? String ?? ""
        print("number = \(number), name = \(name), bounds = \(bounds)")
    }
} else {
    print("Can't get window list")
}

The function returns an array of CFDictionary, which the code above bridged into [String: AnyObject] for easy working in Swift. Here are required and optional keys for the dictionaries. The keys are all defined as CFString you must bridge them into String.

edited Jul 20, 2022 at 11:04

answered Jan 26, 2017 at 18:10

Code Different

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