Question

This program works well when the left mouse button is pressed in the window of application, but what i need is that the program also registers when the button is pressed out of the application. I am running under windows 7.

     #include <windows.h>    

    const char g_szClassName[] = "myWindowClass";

    LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
    {
        switch(msg)
        {
            case WM_LBUTTONDOWN:
            {
                char szFileName[MAX_PATH];
                HINSTANCE hInstance = GetModuleHandle(NULL);

                GetModuleFileName(hInstance, szFileName, MAX_PATH);
                MessageBox(hwnd, szFileName, "This program is:", 
                MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);
            }
            break;
            case WM_CLOSE:
                DestroyWindow(hwnd);
            break;
            case WM_DESTROY:
                PostQuitMessage(0);
            break;
            default:
                return DefWindowProc(hwnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
        }
        return 0;
        }

         int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
        LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
    {
        WNDCLASSEX wc;
        HWND hwnd;
        MSG Msg;

        wc.cbSize        = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
        wc.style         = 0;
        wc.lpfnWndProc   = WndProc;
        wc.cbClsExtra    = 0;
        wc.cbWndExtra    = 0;
        wc.hInstance     = hInstance;
        wc.hIcon         = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
        wc.hCursor       = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
        wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
        wc.lpszMenuName  = NULL;
        wc.lpszClassName = g_szClassName;
        wc.hIconSm       = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);

        if(!RegisterClassEx(&wc))
        {
            MessageBox(NULL, "Window Registration Failed!", "Error!",
                MB_ICONEXCLAMATION | MB_OK);
            return 0;
        }

        hwnd = CreateWindowEx(
            WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE,
            g_szClassName,
            "The title of my window",
            WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
            CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, 240, 120,
            NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

        if(hwnd == NULL)
        {
            MessageBox(NULL, "Window Creation Failed!", "Error!",
                MB_ICONEXCLAMATION | MB_OK);
            return 0;
        }

        ShowWindow(hwnd, nCmdShow);
        UpdateWindow(hwnd);

        while(GetMessage(&Msg, NULL, 0, 0) > 0)
        {
            TranslateMessage(&Msg);
            DispatchMessage(&Msg);
        }
        return Msg.wParam;
    }

Answer 1

You can try the Windows Raw Input API, which ignores focus.