Is there a windows application equivalent to web bots?

[appguy1010]

Basically, when building a web bot you use a network analyzer / packet sniffer to see the requests being made to the web server, so in a sense the website is kind of like an API that you can programatically access to build a bot that interats with the web application. I am interested in the possibility of creating something similar to a web bot but that would instead automate tasks on a windows software program, like for example a 3D modeling program. I don't know anything about windows native apps as I just do web related development but I imagine there is something like a layer between the application and the windows user interface that could potentially be tapped into for this sort of thing, any info to point me in the right direction would be appreciated as I don't really know where to begin searching for this.

[Ewe Loon]

there are 2 functions in windows you might be interested in keybd_event and mouse_event
these simulate keyboard and mouse
I have used them for logging me into various online games