There are many ways to detect when an application has been idle and the answer somewhat depends on what you need to do.
The following is an application I developed
that can be useful. It can easily be used with slight modification in WPF. What it is doing is using Application.Idle
to determine when the application has finished processing messages then it sets a timer
and filters (listens to) all messages for the application and if a relevant message
(such as mouse or keyboard) is received then it resets the timer. It ignores mouse move
since it is possible to move the mouse over the application without using the application.
Note that this is a console program to make the sample easier to try
but the code is intended for Windows Forms and WPF applications.
using System;
using System.Security.Permissions;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace DetectApplicationIdle
{
static class Program
{
public static Timer IdleTimer = new Timer();
const int MinuteMicroseconds = 60000;
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
LeaveIdleMessageFilter limf = new LeaveIdleMessageFilter();
Application.AddMessageFilter(limf);
Application.Idle += new EventHandler(Application_Idle);
IdleTimer.Interval = MinuteMicroseconds * 3;
IdleTimer.Tick += TimeDone;
IdleTimer.Start();
Application.Run(new Form1());
Application.Idle -= new EventHandler(Application_Idle);
}
static private void Application_Idle(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IdleTimer.Enabled) // not yet idling?
IdleTimer.Start();
}
static private void TimeDone(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
IdleTimer.Stop(); // not really necessary
Application.ExitThread(); // we are out of here!
}
}
[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.LinkDemand, Flags = SecurityPermissionFlag.UnmanagedCode)]
public class LeaveIdleMessageFilter : IMessageFilter
{
const int WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN = 0x00A1;
const int WM_NCLBUTTONUP = 0x00A2;
const int WM_NCRBUTTONDOWN = 0x00A4;
const int WM_NCRBUTTONUP = 0x00A5;
const int WM_NCMBUTTONDOWN = 0x00A7;
const int WM_NCMBUTTONUP = 0x00A8;
const int WM_NCXBUTTONDOWN = 0x00AB;
const int WM_NCXBUTTONUP = 0x00AC;
const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100;
const int WM_KEYUP = 0x0101;
const int WM_MOUSEMOVE = 0x0200;
const int WM_LBUTTONDOWN = 0x0201;
const int WM_LBUTTONUP = 0x0202;
const int WM_RBUTTONDOWN = 0x0204;
const int WM_RBUTTONUP = 0x0205;
const int WM_MBUTTONDOWN = 0x0207;
const int WM_MBUTTONUP = 0x0208;
const int WM_XBUTTONDOWN = 0x020B;
const int WM_XBUTTONUP = 0x020C;
// The Messages array must be sorted due to use of Array.BinarySearch
static int[] Messages = new int[] {WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN,
WM_NCLBUTTONUP, WM_NCRBUTTONDOWN, WM_NCRBUTTONUP, WM_NCMBUTTONDOWN,
WM_NCMBUTTONUP, WM_NCXBUTTONDOWN, WM_NCXBUTTONUP, WM_KEYDOWN, WM_KEYUP,
WM_LBUTTONDOWN, WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_RBUTTONDOWN, WM_RBUTTONUP,
WM_MBUTTONDOWN, WM_MBUTTONUP, WM_XBUTTONDOWN, WM_XBUTTONUP};
public bool PreFilterMessage(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == WM_MOUSEMOVE) // mouse move is high volume
return false;
if (!Program.IdleTimer.Enabled) // idling?
return false;
if (Array.BinarySearch(Messages, m.Msg) >= 0)
Program.IdleTimer.Stop();
return false;
}
}
}