Get the current mouse coordinates

Question

I have an iMac, and I want to be able to turn off the monitor when I go to sleep,. Alas, the iMac has no switch for this. I do not want to put the iMac into sleep mode, i want to write a "expose" like application or service, which when the mouse is put into the upper left hand corner of my screen, the display will sleep. Likewise, if i move the mouse away, it comes back.

Does anyone have experience with tracking mouse movements within the Windows and Display APIs I'd need to look up. I just need some direction to get started.

Cheers! Chris

Answer 1

Not really the answer you seem to be looking for, but cant you do this via the power save option and/or the screen saver - can it be set to nothing.

Answer 2

In Leopard, you can just go to "System Preferences" and "Desktop & Screensaver". Click the Screensaver tab, click "Hot Corners", selected the corner you want to change, then chose "Sleep display". Does that not work?

Answer 3

Can you not use the monitor power button?

Answer 4

If it's an old CRT iMac then you can't switch off the screen without switching the computer off - the convection from the CRT is used to cool the processor!

Answer 5

Jared, that does work, but I'm talking about writing something in Windows, not using "Sleep Display" in OSX. Thanks for your comment.

Answer 6

I've been asked to clarrify. Sorry if i'm confusing anyone. I'm running Windows Vista 32 via Bootcamp. I like that Mac OSX has a "hot corners" feature via Expose. I have noticed that besides power managment which runs on a time metric, there is no way to sleep the display at will in Vista.

I would like to write my own tool for this. I might be a glutton for punishment, but i'm a coder, and it's a good excuse to learn something new.

Answer 7

Thanks for the clarification, Chris. I would reiterate:

1. just use a pre-existing solution like this: http://www.southbaypc.com/HotCorners/ (untested anything that does the same thing would work). If it allows you to run your pre-selected screensaver, then all you need to do is ...
2. ... make an exe that does what you want (sleep the screen) and then rename it whatever.scr http://computer.howstuffworks.com/screensaver.htm/printable Do you have this working yet?
3. Once you get that working (and you can enjoy a Windows version of your desired OS X hot corners functionality) then worry about how hot corners are implemented. Your Win32 API question is still a good question but like you said you sound like you want to build it yourself. If that is the case, I would post a new question "Hot corners in Windows Win32 API Low level mouse tracking" or something to that effect and just ask: "how do these Hot Corners programs detect hot corner mouse-over events?" By the way my brother used the low level API to move the mouse cursor and simulate clicks so I know what you're asking is probably possible. It's just that your REAL question seems barried in all this discussion.