C# app - mouseleave event not firing when another window is in the foreground

[spacemanafrica]

Hello all!

I'm working on a C# app that changes the background color of the form on mouseenter then changes it back to the original on mouseleave. For the most part this has been working pretty well, but it seems as though the mouseleave event never fires if I leave the form by way of mouseover'ing another app window.

I've seen this problem mentioned before but I haven't seen a solution. Has anyone come across this before? Any super not-so-secret Windows API hooks that I can use perhaps?

Thanks for reading.

-S.

[Plater]

Well I guess first off, when the mouse moves over the other window is it still in the "area" of the whatever you are watching and waiting for a mouse out?
Which window is active durring these situations? (Or does it happen regardless of which window has focus?)
Can you also use the various lost focus events?

[spacemanafrica]

Well I guess first off, when the mouse moves over the other window is it still in the "area" of the whatever you are watching and waiting for a mouse out?

Nope, I'm checking for that. It's almost as if the mouseleave event never gets fired when the mouse moves from my application in the background to an overlapping foreground window.

Which window is active durring these situations? (Or does it happen regardless of which window has focus?)

It only happens when my app is in the background and any other window is overlapping a part of it.

Can you also use the various lost focus events?

I tried that, but the app never has focus, really, so those don't work.

I'm still at a loss :( I tried overriding WndProc() waiting for the WM_NCMOUSELEAVE and WM_MOUSELEAVE messages, but those don't get fired either.

-S.

[Plater]

What you could maybe do is set up some global hooks.
That will give you mouse/keyboard events even when your window does not have focus. You would have to do some smarts to decide when the mouse is/isn't over your window, but I think it's doable.

[spacemanafrica]

What you could maybe do is set up some global hooks.
That will give you mouse/keyboard events even when your window does not have focus. You would have to do some smarts to decide when the mouse is/isn't over your window, but I think it's doable.

That's great! It looks like exactly what I need. I'll take a look.

Thanks for the link!

-S.