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Well, you can't do it unless your app has control of the mouse. You can't set the cursor globally since every app that gets the mouse controls the cursor shape.
All you do is set the Capture property of the control or form that's going to hold onto the mouse input to True. After that, everything having to do with the mouse stays under the control of that Control or Form even if the mouse in no longer inside that controls borders.
When you're done, set Capture to False.
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my first attempt at setting capture to the form failed in that i'm still only receiving mouse messages meant for the form - i get nothing when the mouse is outside the form (using MouseMove event handler in form). so just to make sure you have all the info, here's how my form is setup..
i wrote a user control component that i place on my main form. the mousehook stuff is all setup and handled within the 'code behind' of the component. when a radio button is clicked on the component, i set capture to the form like this: this.ParentForm.Capture = true. in the MouseMove handler for the form, i check if capture is true then if so, i change the cursor to mine. at this point i only see my cursor and only receive MouseMove messages when the mouse is inside the form. am i doing this right? i keep reading all this stuff about how the hook and capture stuff has to reside in an unmanaged DLL which i don't have right now. plus the hook works right now. now i just want my cursor to appear when mouse is outside form.
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Hello again,
Following on from my question in which I was trying the patience of others and to get the StartTime of the Window's "System" process [^], I have found a way.
Please forgive its current inelegance and downright clumsiness but it (kinda) works. Please bear with me on all the string dx stuff;
Process[] processlist = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process procs in processlist)
{
if (procs.ProcessName == "System")
{
long st = procs.StartTime.ToFileTime();
DateTime stDt = new DateTime(1601, 1, 1).AddSeconds(st);
string stime = String.Empty;
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 86400000);
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 3600000 % 24);
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 120000 % 60);
stime += (Environment.TickCount / 1000 % 60);
string d = stime[0].ToString();
string d1 = (stime[1]) + (stime[2]).ToString();
string d2 = (stime[3]) + (stime[4]).ToString();
string d3 = (stime[5]) + (stime[6]).ToString();
DateTime temp = DateTime.Now - new TimeSpan(9, 13, 51, 22);
DateTime result = DateTime.Now - new TimeSpan(Convert.ToInt32(d), Convert.ToInt32(d1), Convert.ToInt32(d2), Convert.ToInt32(d3));
Console.WriteLine("s :" + stime);
Console.WriteLine("d :" + d);
Console.WriteLine("d1 :" + d1);
Console.WriteLine("d2 :" + d2);
Console.WriteLine("d3 :" + d3);
Console.WriteLine(temp);
Console.WriteLine(result);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
The output is;
s :9135538
d :9
d1 :13
d2 :55
d3 :38
10/03/2012 10:14:22
10/03/2012 08:12:48
My question is therefore, given that the "new TimeSpan" timespan is being fed the same input (unless something is happening in the Convert.ToInt32 process) why is the output different and, can something be done about it?
As always, thanks for your time.
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Don't you simply want procs.StartTime ? 
(I tried to test it, but I'm at work and got System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception (0x80004005): Access is denied )  .
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from my previous post;
Quote
Quote: full(ish) code, I am inserting the data int a SQL db thus the "inprocs" stuff...
Process[] processlist = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process procs in processlist)
{
if (procs.ProcessName == "System")
{
insprocs.Parameters.Add("@PStart", SqlDbType.NVarChar, 30).Value = startTime.ToString();
}
}
I am currently ToString-ing it for testing but that may/may not remain the case.
If you try to GetProcesses without separating out the "System" (and "Idle")process,even though it is a DateTime, you get the error "System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: Unable to enumerate the process modules", probably because of the "System" process's starttime properties.
So I am running GetProcesses 3 times-
1) if ((procs.ProcessName != "Idle") && (procs.ProcessName != "System")) // get everything
2) if (procs.ProcessName == "System") // get everything except "MainModule.FileName" (unenumerable for the System process)
3) if (procs.ProcessName == "Idle") // get only ProcessID, ProcessName (I think I can get RAM in use but I am not sure yet)
Depending on how you manipulate the starttime value, you get different values.
Unquote
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What is it you are trying to accomplish? Do you want the StartTime of the "System" process or not?
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Absolutely...
Problem is, it has some weird Tick value that I can't get my hands on. Last time I did this (which seems to be just about the only way to get any meaningful value)
long st = procs.StartTime.ToFileTime(); I got "504911232000000000" which bears no relationship to the actual StartTime that I can find...
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Either the StartTime gives you what you want directly or not at all, no amount of manipulation is going to give you what it doesn't have so stop trying that.
Now, what is it you are trying to accomplish?
Do you want to know when the system started up? I recommend creating a Windows Scheduled Task to run at system startup and log that somewhere; it could be as simple as echo %date% %time% >> %appdata%\Reboot.log .
modified 19-Mar-12 20:13pm.
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I already know what time the computer/system started up.
I want to know what time the "System" process, as viewed in the Task Manager started.
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I already know what time the computer/system started up.
I want to know what time the "System" process, as viewed in the Task Manager started.
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For what purpose?
Task Manager says mine started in 2009 which is certainly untrue. So I don't see how you can do better.
P.S. Even as the administrator on my home system (Win 7) I still get the access violation when I try to get the StartTime of the System process.
modified 20-Mar-12 9:49am.
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You need to run it as System (mine impersonates System to get the info, Administrator doesn't have enough privileges)
The purpose is a) because it completes the Process listing and allows me to cross-reference against netstat & system boot-time.
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CCodeNewbie wrote: because it completes the Process listing
Then just display what the StartTime property tells you and leave it at that.
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The StartTime property, once manipulated to reveal a value, tells you 1601/1/1 00:00:00.
That wasn't good enough for me. I wanted the actual StartTime but didn't have the syntactical knowledge of how to get it even if I did have rough idea of how it could be retrieved.
Thanks to you, Alan, Ravi & Luc, I (and anybody else Googling "get Window's System process starttime" or something similar), instead of hitting dozens of sites saying it can't be done, now have a solution.
I would like to think that's what boards like this are for.
Thank you once again for your input.
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Still not perfect - but it works (Improvements very welcome)
TimeSpan uptime = TimeSpan.Zero;
using (PerformanceCounter ut = new PerformanceCounter("System", "System Up Time"))
{
ut.NextValue();
uptime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(ut.NextValue());
}
Console.WriteLine(uptime.ToString());
Process[] processlist = Process.GetProcesses();
foreach (Process procs in processlist)
{
if (procs.ProcessName == "System")
{
long st = procs.StartTime.ToFileTime();
DateTime stDt = new DateTime(1601, 1, 1).AddSeconds(st);
float Days = (Environment.TickCount / 86400000);
int dd = (int)Days;
float Hours = (Environment.TickCount / 3600000 % 24);
int HH = (int)Hours;
float Mins = (Environment.TickCount / 60000 % 60);
int mm = (int)Mins;
float Secs = (Environment.TickCount / 1000 % 60);
int ss = (int)Secs;
DateTime result = DateTime.Now - new TimeSpan(dd, HH, mm, ss);
}
}
code run @ ~ 12:24 pm
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I'm glad you've come to a solution that you are happy with. One point that I'm not sure you appreciate is that the up time obtained from the performance counter and the TickCount are essentially the same value.
private void CompareCounterAndTickCount() {
using (PerformanceCounter ut = new PerformanceCounter("System", "System Up Time")) {
ut.NextValue();
TimeSpan counterUpTime = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(ut.NextValue());
TimeSpan tickCountUpTime = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(Environment.TickCount);
Console.WriteLine("Up Time");
Console.WriteLine(" from performance counter {0}", counterUpTime);
Console.WriteLine(" from tickcount {0}", tickCountUpTime);
}
}
On my system the duration reported by TickCount is ~0.2s longer than the performance counter's value which presumably just means the two counters do not share the same origin. Also note the use of the FromMilliseconds method to convert the TickCount to a TimeSpan, much simpler than your multistep calculation!
Alan.
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Yes, but I am not trying to get the system start-time. I can already get that using Ravi's post (see my previous question). I explicitly want the System process's start-time.
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I can't understand your reasoning in this matter.
The SystemUp Time performance counter description is
System Up Time is the elapsed time (in seconds) that the computer has been running since it was last started. This counter displays the difference between the start time and the current time.
The Environment.TickCount description is
A 32-bit signed integer containing the amount of time in milliseconds that has passed since the last time the computer was started.
Subtracting either from the current time gets the time when the computer was started. I don't see why (or how) you differentiate the system start time and the "System" process start time.
Alan.
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Hi Alan,
The reason(s) for wanting the System process start-time never had anything to do with getting the PCs boot-time.
It had to do with being able to complete a running-processes table, x-reference against 2 other sql tables that form part of the project and possibly because I saw so many forum postings that said it can't be done 
Thanks for all your help with this & when I have completed phase 2 and/or 3 I will probably post the whole thing as an article and look forward to your comments.
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I don't know what to do about it yet. The pseudo -code posted is a prototype to demonstrate that getting the "System" process's StartTime can be exposed (accurately when coded correctly).
What would your suggestion be?
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Hi Luc,
Got it working but wanted to say thank you for your help (code is in my reply to PIEBALDconsult).
Would welcome your thoughts and comments...
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