keyboard pressed keys tracking

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

Is there a way to constantly track keys pressed, even when the C++ program is not the active form? I mean that the program is running but is in the background. So can a person be using Word and there still be a way to extract the keys they pressed from the buffer? Thanks a bunch.

Posted 2-Aug-10 9:38am

vitalik22123

Add a Solution

3 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Yusuf · Answer 1 · 2010-08-02T11:56:00

Solution 1

you need to set global keyboard hook using http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms644990(VS.85).aspx[^]

Posted 2-Aug-10 11:56am

Yusuf

Comments

vitalik22123 3-Aug-10 2:28am

thanks

vitalik22123 · Answer 2 · 2010-08-03T03:45:00

Solution 2

hi, i don't understand what to put in "HOOKPROC lpfn", "HISTANCE" and "DWORD". Hope someone help me. Thanks.

int main() 
{
	SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD,HOOKPROC,HISTANCE,DWORD);

Posted 3-Aug-10 3:45am

vitalik22123

Sauro Viti · Answer 3 · 2010-08-03T04:10:00

First of all, if you install an hook of type WH_KEYBOARD then you are not enabled to track the keys sent to other application; you should use WH_KEYBOARD_LL instead.

See the code snippet below:

C++

HHOOK hHook = NULL;

LRESULT CALLBACK MyLowLevelKeyboardProc(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
   if (nCode == HC_ACTION)
   {
      // wParam and lParam hold valid data about pressed keys
      KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT* pKb = reinterpret_cast<kbdllhookstruct>(lParam);
      bool bAltKeyHeldDown = (pKb->flags & LLKHF_ALTDOWN) != 0;

      if (bAltKeyHeldDown && pKb->vkCode == VK_F2)
      {
         // Do something when ALT+F2 is pressed
      }
   }

   return CallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}

// Somewhere in your initialization code...
hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, MyLowLevelKeyboardProc, GetModuleHandle(NULL), 0);
</kbdllhookstruct>