How can I take a screenshot of a website w/ .NET?

Question

I'm looking for ideas on how to take screenshots of websites within a .NET application. This application will be a windows service. Thanks!

Answer 1

Check out the following links:

http://pietschsoft.com/post/2008/07/C-Generate-WebPage-Thumbmail-Screenshot-Image.aspx

http://www.dotnetspider.com/resources/28436-Code-get-screenshot-webpage.aspx

Answer 2

You can't show forms with WindowsServices. However, try to create a Form, with WebBrowser component, fill-in URL, browser.OnPageLoaded => myBrowser.DrawToBitmap.. who knows.

Answer 3

You can host the MSHTML component and have it load the page and then print it to a metafile, which can then be player or converted to a bitmap.

Note, however, that the MSHTML component may not work correctly when run as service without visual UI (e.g. without desktop interaction).