AutoHotkey Community

Step 1

If you do not already have Winspector,
Download & install Winspector from www.windows-spy.com/download/
Direct DL Link: Winspector_setup.exe ( 0.99 MiB )

Read this topic: Tutorial on posting messages to Windows



Step 2
Minimize all windows and Start your program.
> In this example I am using Windows Media Player




Step 3
Run Winspector. If you had chosen the default settings, then the path would be like
?:\Program Files\Winspector\WinspectorU.exe





Step 4
Close all the sub-windows with close buttons ( refer the Red arrows in above screenshot ) until
you have an empty window like below





Step 5

Select View > Window List





Step 6a

Click on the Window tab to make sure you are viewing the Window List





Step 6b

Browse the List and find your app. You can easily identify it with the Icon.
> In this case it is Windows Media Player
Select the Window from the list / Right click and select Messages...





Step 6c

Close the Window List and maximize the Message Window





Step 7a

You will see a plain window like below.
> Take a look at the Caption bar, WMP Skin Host is the ahk_class





Step 7b

Right click on the Client-area
1) make sure Filter messages is checked. If not check it.
2) Select Edit Message Filter...





Step 7c

By default, Winspector will monitor all the Window Messages,
Whereas, we need only it to monitor WM_COMMAND.
So click Filter all to remove all the Messages.





Step 7d

Select WM_COMMAND from the left list, double-click it to move it to the right list.





Step 7e

Click Ok button.





Step 8

Use alt-tab to move focus to Windows Media Player and perform the following:
1) Pull down Menu File > Open to open a media file
2) Pull down Play > Play/Pause to pause the media.
3) Pull down Play > Stop to stop the media





Step 9

Use alt-tab to move focus back to Winspector.
If you find that the window caption no longer points to "your Message capture window" ... and shows
something like SysShadow instead.. keep closing these sub-windows until "your window" appears in
the Caption.



In this example it is WMP Skin host and will appear as follows:



The highlighted integers are the required wParam for WM_COMMAND
Open = 57601
Play/Pause Toggle = 18808
Stop = 18809

From AHK, to control Play/Pause of WMP, the command would be


Note: ahk_class for WMP will change for full mode/skin mode etc


Thats all folks!...

Very helpful, thanks.
Some might find PhiLhos' Extracting Menus to be useful too:
http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtop ... 1474#51474
(Places list of an applications menu wm_commands in the clipboard)

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AHK FAQ
TF : Text files & strings lib, TF Forum

Many thanks SKAN. That is very useful.

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AHK_H (2alpha) AHF TT _Struct WatchDir Yaml _Input ObjTree RapidHotkey DynaRun

Thanks Suresh brother,
This picture tutorial was very HELP full for me. Now i am getting all correct values except few things. Thanks:-)

SKAN_rep += 1

W00T

Thanks man. MSN will never be the same again...

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I know i have 6 legs. It's cuz I'm special.

Pictures are gone now


Please reup

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paradigm.shift:=(•_•)┌П┐RTFM||^.*∞

Pictures are showing just fine for me...

That happens once in a while with images loaded in autohotkey.net.
If the problem is persistent, try clearing your cookies and restart your browser.

I have been completely unsuccessful in downloading Winspector; the links don't work.
Could you possibly send me a copy please?
Many thanks.

www.autohotkey.net/~goyyah/Winspector_setupU.exe
VirusTotal Scan Results for the above executable.

Excellent tutorial, thanks.

Rajat's tut is excellent for WM_COMMAND but I'm wondering if there are such comprehensive tutorials or instructions for any other message types.

It would be good to be able to understand the relation between messages and constants.

Would make using WinSpector much more useful for use with AHK.

Just a thought.

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paradigm.shift:=(•_•)┌П┐RTFM||^.*∞