I was wondering if there is a way to screenshot your desktop with a console application without having to call Windows.Forms and call the SendKeys
class.
Because I just created a compiler and it can only compile pure C# Console applications, it doesnt work if you add a reference because its going to throw you a few error See this link (My question with an answer on codeproject) and I want to create a console application which can take screenshots when I want it to.
I use this class to do my screenshots - see if it works for you. It doesn't reference forms and uses System.Drawing instead.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace ScreenTest
{
public class PrintScreen
{
/// <summary>
/// Creates an Image object containing a screen shot of the entire desktop
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public Image CaptureScreen()
{
return CaptureWindow(User32.GetDesktopWindow());
}
/// <summary>
/// Creates an Image object containing a screen shot of a specific window
/// </summary>
/// <param name="handle">The handle to the window. (In windows forms, this is obtained by the Handle property)</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public Image CaptureWindow(IntPtr handle)
{
// get te hDC of the target window
IntPtr hdcSrc = User32.GetWindowDC(handle);
// get the size
User32.RECT windowRect = new User32.RECT();
User32.GetWindowRect(handle, ref windowRect);
int width = windowRect.right - windowRect.left;
int height = windowRect.bottom - windowRect.top;
// create a device context we can copy to
IntPtr hdcDest = GDI32.CreateCompatibleDC(hdcSrc);
// create a bitmap we can copy it to,
// using GetDeviceCaps to get the width/height
IntPtr hBitmap = GDI32.CreateCompatibleBitmap(hdcSrc, width, height);
// select the bitmap object
IntPtr hOld = GDI32.SelectObject(hdcDest, hBitmap);
// bitblt over
GDI32.BitBlt(hdcDest, 0, 0, width, height, hdcSrc, 0, 0, GDI32.SRCCOPY);
// restore selection
GDI32.SelectObject(hdcDest, hOld);
// clean up
GDI32.DeleteDC(hdcDest);
User32.ReleaseDC(handle, hdcSrc);
// get a .NET image object for it
Image img = Image.FromHbitmap(hBitmap);
// free up the Bitmap object
GDI32.DeleteObject(hBitmap);
return img;
}
/// <summary>
/// Captures a screen shot of a specific window, and saves it to a file
/// </summary>
/// <param name="handle"></param>
/// <param name="filename"></param>
/// <param name="format"></param>
public void CaptureWindowToFile(IntPtr handle, string filename, ImageFormat format)
{
Image img = CaptureWindow(handle);
img.Save(filename, format);
}
/// <summary>
/// Captures a screen shot of the entire desktop, and saves it to a file
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filename"></param>
/// <param name="format"></param>
public void CaptureScreenToFile(string filename, ImageFormat format)
{
Image img = CaptureScreen();
img.Save(filename, format);
}
/// <summary>
/// Helper class containing Gdi32 API functions
/// </summary>
private class GDI32
{
public const int SRCCOPY = 0x00CC0020; // BitBlt dwRop parameter
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern bool BitBlt(IntPtr hObject, int nXDest, int nYDest,
int nWidth, int nHeight, IntPtr hObjectSource,
int nXSrc, int nYSrc, int dwRop);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr CreateCompatibleBitmap(IntPtr hDC, int nWidth,
int nHeight);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr CreateCompatibleDC(IntPtr hDC);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern bool DeleteDC(IntPtr hDC);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern bool DeleteObject(IntPtr hObject);
[DllImport("gdi32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr SelectObject(IntPtr hDC, IntPtr hObject);
}
/// <summary>
/// Helper class containing User32 API functions
/// </summary>
private class User32
{
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct RECT
{
public int left;
public int top;
public int right;
public int bottom;
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr GetWindowDC(IntPtr hWnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr ReleaseDC(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hDC);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr GetWindowRect(IntPtr hWnd, ref RECT rect);
}
}
Here is an example using it in a ConsoleApp.
using ScreenTest;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace Screentest
{
class Program
{
static DirectoryInfo di;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
args = new string[] { "y" };
if (args[0] == "y")
{
di = new DirectoryInfo("C:\\ss");
if (!di.Exists){ di.Create(); }
PrintScreen ps = new PrintScreen();
ps.CaptureScreenToFile(di + "\\screen.png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
}
}
}
}
For anyone seeing this, I made a working example based on Cody Popham code (I cant comment)
https://github.com/Wyulliam/screen-shooter
I added an option to set a path for the files and I'm using a timer to take multiples screenshots, so you can set, like 3000ms (3 seconds) and it will keep taking screen shots every 3 seconds.
I also used the Garbage Collector to don't explode our memories