C# ListView mouse wheel scroll without focus

"Simple" and working solution:

public class FormContainingListView : Form, IMessageFilter
{
    public FormContainingListView()
    {
        // ...
        Application.AddMessageFilter(this);
    }

    #region mouse wheel without focus

    // P/Invoke declarations
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr WindowFromPoint(Point pt);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);

    public bool PreFilterMessage(ref Message m)
    {
        if (m.Msg == 0x20a)
        {
            // WM_MOUSEWHEEL, find the control at screen position m.LParam
            Point pos = new Point(m.LParam.ToInt32() & 0xffff, m.LParam.ToInt32() >> 16);
            IntPtr hWnd = WindowFromPoint(pos);
            if (hWnd != IntPtr.Zero && hWnd != m.HWnd && System.Windows.Forms.Control.FromHandle(hWnd) != null)
            {
                SendMessage(hWnd, m.Msg, m.WParam, m.LParam);
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    #endregion
}

You'll normally only get mouse/keyboard events to a window or control when it has focus. If you want to see them without focus then you're going to have to put in place a lower-level hook.

Here is an example low level mouse hook