C# SendKeys Wait for Program to Load before sending

Question

So long story short, I am trying to automate some things when my computer boots up. I thought I'd write an C# console application to do this and then add it to a schedule task in windows to be executed on bootup. My problem is with one program, it requires a password and has no options to open via the command line. Thus it must be entered manually. My thought was to retrieve my password from a KeePass database and use SendKeys to enter the password and login to the program. The problem I'm having is the time it takes to load; I have no way of detecting when the GUI interface has loaded and is ready for my SendKeys. Is there any way to detect this? I'm assuming all I have to work with is the "Process" class since thats what I used to run the program. Also note that when I run the executable using Process.Start(), the program creates another process for logging in, but it has no associated window that I can see using Windows API calls.

Okay that was long, I can re-cap...

Problem: From C# detecting when a third party program has loaded (i.e. the splash screen is gone and GUI is ready for user interaction - meaning I can't just rely on if the Process is running or not). Also, no command line options for the third party program, or I would just run it with the password as an argument.

Goal: To use SendKeys in order to automate entering a password, but my program must wait for the third party application to finish loading.

Notes: Using C# .NET 3.5 Console Application NOT detecting load for my own form but a third party otherwise this would be easy (i.e. form_loaded event...)

Thank you for looking at my question, if you want any more details or anything let me know.

UPDATE:

Problem solved! The two answers I received combined to give me the solution I wanted. So if anyone comes across this later, here is what I did to make it work.

So this program automates a login for some client software that you must login to. My problem was that the software offered not option or documentation for command line prameters which many other programs offer so you can login with a keyfile or something. This program also disabled copy and paste so the password HAS to be typed in manually, which is a big pain if you use passwords like I do, long complicated ones with no patterns. So I wrote this program for my benefit as well others at work; I just schedule it to run at logon to my windows machine and it opens the client software and performs login automatically.

//
// IMPORTANT Windows API imports....
//

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern uint GetWindowThreadProcessId(IntPtr hWnd, out uint procId);

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow); 

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);


// When I get to this point in my code, I already had the password and window title...
string password = "password";
string title = "window title";

// This gets a handle to the window I want where "title" is the text in the title
// bar of the window as a string.
// This is a Windows API function that must be imported by DLLImport
// I had to get the handle this way because all I knew about the third party
// window was the title, not the process name or anything...
IntPtr hWnd = FindWindowEx(IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero, null, title);

// Now that I have a handle to the login window I used another windows API
// call to get the process ID.

// This windows API call gives me the Process ID as an out parameter and returns
// the thread ID of the window. I don't use the thread it, but maybe you can...
uint loginWindowProcId;
uint loginWindowThreadId = GetWindowThreadProcessId(hWnd, out loginWindowProcId);

// now I can just use .NET to find the Process for me...
Process loginWindowProcess = null;

if (0 != loginWindowProcId)
{
  // get the process object
  loginWindowProcess = Process.GetProcessById((int)loginWindowProcId);

  // This right here is why I wanted the Process structure. It takes a
  // little while for the client software to load and be ready. So here
  // you wait for the window to be idle so you know it has loaded and can
  // receive user input, or in this case keys from "SendKeys".
  loginWindowProcess.WaitForInputIdle();

  // I use yet another windows API call to make sure that the login window
  // is currently in the foreground. This ensures that the keys are sent
  // to the right window. Use the handle that we started with.
  SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);

  // Now send the password to the window. In my case, the user name is 
  // always there from my windows credentials. So normally I would type in the
  // password and press ENTER to login. But here I'll use SendKeys to mimic my
  // behavior.
  SendKeys.SendWait(password);   // send password string
  SendKeys.SendWait("{ENTER}");  // send ENTER key

  // Now the client should be logging in for you! : )

  // IMPORTANT NOTE
  // If you are using a console application like I am, you must add a reference to
  // System.Windows.Forms to your project and put "using System.Windows.Forms;" in
  // your code. This is required to use the "SendKeys" function.
  //
  // Also this code is just for my testing (quick and dirty), you will want to write 
  // more checks and catch errors and such. You should probably give the 
  // WaitForInputIdle a timeout etc...
}

Answer 1

You can check with Process.WaitForInputIdle after you start a process, and wait until is fully started, here is the simple example :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xb73d10t%28v=vs.71%29.aspx

Answer 2

Try looking at that: http://www.acoolsip.com/a-cool-blog/science-and-technology/151-c-sending-commands-to-independent-windows.html

you can check if the window is shown (using the link) and then sending messages (also on the link)