Windows - window status (Running vs Not Responding)

[Roger Dahlstrom]

On Apr 11, 3:46 pm, Tim Golden <m... at timgolden.me.uk> wrote:
> rdahlstrom wrote:
> > On Apr 11, 1:45 pm, rdahlstrom <roger.dahlst... at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Does anyone know how to determine the window status (Running or Not
> >> Responding)?  I've tried various methods with no success...
>
> >> This would be on a variety of Windows systems, but all at least XP,
> >> and mostly server 2003.  Everyone will have Python 2.5.1 on them, and
> >> the script would be running locally.
>
> >> Any ideas?
>
> > Basically, I'm looking for something similar to the Process.Responding
> > property in System.Diagnostics...
>
> Well one (slightly drastic) possibility might be to use IronPython [1]
> or Python.NET [2] to invoke the .Net functionality directly. AFAIK there
> is no direct alternative: I believe that WMI can be a useful match
> for System.Diagnostics but doesn't deal with windows (ie user-interface
> elements). Presumably you could find a top-level window for each
> process, using something vaguely like this [3] coupled with this [4]
> and send it a suitable SendMessage to "ping" it. Haven't done it myself
> but can't see why it shouldn't work.
>
> All a bit handwavey but maybe it'll point you somewhere...
>
> TJG
>
> [1]http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=IronPython
> [2]http://pythonnet.sourceforge.net/
> [3]http://timgolden.me.uk/python/wmi_cookbook.html#running_processes
> [4]http://timgolden.me.uk/python/win32_how_do_i/find-the-window-for-my-s...

You know, I thought about sending it a message, but I found that, in
testing, I am able to move, resize, and copy text from a "Not
Responding" window.  I was having a tough time figuring out a suitable
message that I could send a generic window, one that I had no idea
about what it had available to me.  Other than sending it a graceful
exit message (which I really don't want to do), have you any ides
about what to send it?