Question

I would like to disable the Action Center messages in Windows. I know where the registry holds the values for these checks but those are machine specific. And I know that I can disable the complete service. But I do not want to disable the service, I only want to not show the notifications/alerts/messages.

To see these options I am talking about goto: cmd.exe -> RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL wscui.cpl

The security center will be started and click on the left on “Change Action Center settings”.

Now I have referenced “C:\Windows\System32\wscui.cpl” in my C# project and added

using SecurityCenterAdmin;

I see I can create this object

SecurityCenterAdmin.WscAdmin admin = new WscAdmin();
admin.DoModalSecurityAction();

But I can find no references about it. Searching on Google for “WscAdmin msdn” or “SecurityCenterAdmin” yields no results.

Any hints?

Thanks in advance.
Mike

Answer 1

If you’re unwilling to go through the proper channels to get access to the API ([e-mail]). You can always try robot-ting the process.

• Use Process.Start to open the action center, you seem to already have the command line “RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL wscui.cpl”.
• Use the FindWindow and FindWindowEx API functions to get window and control handles. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms633499%28v=vs.85%29.aspx You’ll want to make use of the “Microsoft SPY++” Windows SDK tool for getting class names etc.
• Use the SendMessage API to simulate mouse messages to the window/controls http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644950%28v=vs.85%29.aspx WM_LBUTTONDOWN, WM_LBUTTONUP, WM_MOUSEMOVE etc etc. Using SPY++ will also help with this process.

If you’re doing this without properly notifying the user then your software is pretty shady – maleware. I could see practical uses, as an internal program your company may use to quickly configure stand alone desktops or something, but it’s really a stretch.