Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

x64 Replacement/Alternative to Microsoft's IntelliMouse application.
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20thcenturyvole
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Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

Post by 20thcenturyvole »

XMBC Version: 2.19.2
Installed or Portable version: Installed
Windows Version: 10
Mouse Information (brand/model): generic 3 button

Hello,

Is there a way to make the 'Run Application' action apply to the computer the mouse pointer is currently located on/over, as opposed to the computer running the XMBC app? Some actions like 'Open Explorer' and 'Open RUN Command' always appear to launch on the computer where the pointer is, whereas others always launch from the host running XMBC.

Cheers, Paul.
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phil
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Re: Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

Post by phil »

Run application runs on the computer XMBC is running on.
I guess your talking remote desktop or something? Most actions in XMBC send keystrokes, which will get directed to the active application (and in the case of RDP/VM thing, will be in that environment) but running a program? No - that's going to run on the machine running XMBC.

There is no way XMBC can launch a process on a remote computer!
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
20thcenturyvole
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Re: Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

Post by 20thcenturyvole »

phil wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 3:58 am Run application runs on the computer XMBC is running on.
I guess your talking remote desktop or something? Most actions in XMBC send keystrokes, which will get directed to the active application (and in the case of RDP/VM thing, will be in that environment) but running a program? No - that's going to run on the machine running XMBC.

There is no way XMBC can launch a process on a remote computer!
Hi Phil,

That's what I figured - I was surprised when I realized that the action 'Open Explorer' actually opened a window on the computer local to the mouse position - I guess this works because XMBC must be hooking onto an existing process already running on that computer.

VM/RDP isn't why I asked (though, yes they are things I use frequently) - I have a 4 monitor setup, each with a different computer attached and XMBC allows me to do things like instantly reposition the mouse on the screen/computer combo of my choice. Being able to fire off a local process by some means or another, would be potentially very useful in my ongoing quest to do as much as possible with one mouse hand. I'll have to look at winrs or something.

I'd been looking at ways to manually invoke a screensaver on a particular computer and immediately reposition the mouse away from that computer's local screen so that mouse movement wouldn't instantly cancel the screensaver. The 'Activate Screensaver' action always acts only upon the PC running XMBC, so doesn't quite do what I needed.
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phil
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Re: Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

Post by phil »

20thcenturyvole wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:09 pm That's what I figured - I was surprised when I realized that the action 'Open Explorer' actually opened a window on the computer local to the mouse position - I guess this works because XMBC must be hooking onto an existing process already running on that computer.
It works because XMBC just sends the WIN+E key strokes - which get routed to the active window and thus the remote machine!
If you have your machines networked, you might be able to use some tools such as those from MS's Sysinternals to launch a process on a remote machine - I guess the problem would be knowing which remote machine to launch them on - and I'm not sure there would be a way to do that (if cursor position is between x,y/x2,y2 then launch this command which will spawn a process on machine Z).

I'm not sure how you have this setup - one mouse and multiple computers - I guess you mus be using some software to share the mouse (I know its possible but Ive never personally had such a setup). VM/RDP yes, multi-local computer not so much/at all.
20thcenturyvole wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:09 pm I'd been looking at ways to manually invoke a screensaver on a particular computer and immediately reposition the mouse away from that computer's local screen so that mouse movement wouldn't instantly cancel the screensaver. The 'Activate Screensaver' action always acts only upon the PC running XMBC, so doesn't quite do what I needed.
Yeh, to activate the screensaver, it sends a windows message - and that's only going to the local machine I'm afraid. Again, you may be able to find something that will allow you to invoke such messages over the network on a remote machine - but its not something XMBC will be able to do natively.
--[ Phil ]--
--[ Administrator & XMBC Author ]--
Logitech G9/G604/M720/MX518, Microsoft Intellimouse, Trust 16341 BT Mouse
Windows 10 x64, AMD Ryzen 5900x, MSI x570 Tomahawk, 32GB DDR4,
nVidia RTX 2070s, Evo 970 1Tb NVME, 2x2TB WD Black (RAID1)
20thcenturyvole
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Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:52 am

Re: Can you launch an application via the Run Application action on the computer the mouse pointer is currently on

Post by 20thcenturyvole »

phil wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 12:25 pm
20thcenturyvole wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:09 pm That's what I figured - I was surprised when I realized that the action 'Open Explorer' actually opened a window on the computer local to the mouse position - I guess this works because XMBC must be hooking onto an existing process already running on that computer.
It works because XMBC just sends the WIN+E key strokes - which get routed to the active window and thus the remote machine!
If you have your machines networked, you might be able to use some tools such as those from MS's Sysinternals to launch a process on a remote machine - I guess the problem would be knowing which remote machine to launch them on - and I'm not sure there would be a way to do that (if cursor position is between x,y/x2,y2 then launch this command which will spawn a process on machine Z).

I'm not sure how you have this setup - one mouse and multiple computers - I guess you mus be using some software to share the mouse (I know its possible but Ive never personally had such a setup). VM/RDP yes, multi-local computer not so much/at all.
20thcenturyvole wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:09 pm I'd been looking at ways to manually invoke a screensaver on a particular computer and immediately reposition the mouse away from that computer's local screen so that mouse movement wouldn't instantly cancel the screensaver. The 'Activate Screensaver' action always acts only upon the PC running XMBC, so doesn't quite do what I needed.
Yeh, to activate the screensaver, it sends a windows message - and that's only going to the local machine I'm afraid. Again, you may be able to find something that will allow you to invoke such messages over the network on a remote machine - but its not something XMBC will be able to do natively.
Hi Phil,

Yeah, I use MouseWithoutBorders to arrange the 4 screens as one very wide screen - this allows the mouse to move freely from one screen/computer combo to the next without needing a physical KVM. However, I'd sometimes lose track of where the mouse currently is, so I use ButtonHeld with simulated keys to invoke MouseWithoutBorders' own key bindings to hop directly to screen 1/2/3/4, with the length of the button press determining which screen. MouseWithoutBorders combined with XMBC, creates quite a powerful package.

You've actually given me the idea of how to achieve what I was trying to do:
Pressing Windows logo key + 1 will launch the first item pinned to the windows taskbar, so pinning whatever I want to launch on that particular computer to that 1st position on it's taskbar can then be triggered via XMBC's simulated key bindings {LWIN}1 whenever the cursor is on that screen. It's a bit of a kludge, but is simple and seems to work nicely. :)
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