I want to have my app which is minimized to capture data selected in another app's window when the hot key is pressed. My app definitely doesn't have the focus. Additionally when the hot key is pressed I want to present a fading popup (Outlook style) so my app never gets focus.

At a minimum I want to capture the Window name, Process ID and the selected data. The app which has focus is not my application?

I know one option is to sniff the Clipboard, but are there any other solutions.

This is to audit the rate of data-entry in to another system of which I have no control. It is a mainframe emulation client program(attachmate).

The plan is

1. complete data entry in Application X.
2. Select a certain section of the screen in App X which is proof of data entry (transaction ID).
3. Press the Magic Hotkey, which then 'sends' the selection to my App.
4. From System.environment or system.Threading I can find the Windows logon.
5. Similiarly I can also capture the time.
6. All the data will be logged to SQL.
7. Once Complete show Outlook style pop up saying the data entry has been logged.

Any thoughts.