HotKeys when not focused without interupting current application

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Hi!

Okay so it was kind of hard to summarize in topic but what I'm doing atm is an mp3 player that will allow me to change songs without having it focused. This is because I am often playing games and listening to music and every now and then i want to switch songs. Currently using spotify and it wont allow me to do it - so I figured I'd do it myself.

Now I've managed to write something using a tutorial project so i can indeed hijack a button like Ctrl + 4 or whatever but thing is if the game requires that particular combination of buttons it wont execute in the game.. Which sucks since Iw ant to make it so it functions regardless..

Basically, the way a keylogger works I guess. So I just "borrow" the keystroke and not straight up steal it.

Ideas?

Posted 24-Apr-11 14:05pm

Ullvantar

Updated 24-Apr-11 22:39pm

v2

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Nish Nishant · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24T16:06:00

Solution 1

See Beginner's Tutorial - Using global hotkeys[^]

I wrote that 9 years ago, but I believe the concepts should still be the same. [unless they added a fully managed class in the framework in recent versions]

[Update]
-------------

Okay, my bad. I just realized that article is purely for native C++. The APIs will need to be P/Invoked from C#. I trust you can do that part.

[Update-2]
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Here's some sample P/Invoke code: http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32/RegisterHotKey.html[^]

Posted 24-Apr-11 16:06pm

Nish Nishant

Updated 24-Apr-11 16:09pm

v3

Comments

Ullvantar 25-Apr-11 6:34am

This is sort of what I had working, but the problem remains. Say I use the code in your example there and press ctrl + a it does indeed bring it back even though it's not focused - however it removes the original function of ctrl + a (select all)

With this solution it is ofc possible to solve the problem of activating functions from another window however it doesn't solve the problem of removing the original function.. Thanks though!

Nish Nishant 25-Apr-11 8:56am

You should not use standard keys as global short cuts. Typically people use Ctrl+Alt or Ctrl-Shift combinations that are usually safe to use as they don't have standard uses.

Ullvantar 25-Apr-11 13:00pm

Yep, I guess I will just have to go for that. It's close enough to what I want :)
Thanks!

Nish Nishant 25-Apr-11 13:04pm

You are welcome.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-24T16:10:00

You need to hijack anything to just process the keystroke. You did not tag what library you want to use (Forms, WPF?), so it is not possible to give one universal answer; and I don't want to list all thinkable variable. You can easily achieve all you need by just handling KeyDown event an some controls. You can also use menu hot keys — they will work regardless what control is currently focused.

[EDIT]

After the question was tagged:
With System.Windows.Forms, you can also use System.Windows.Forms.Form.KeyPreview, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.keypreview.aspx[^]. If you assign the valued for this property to true (while default it false), you will be able to process keyboard events before they go to controls; this is what you need.

—SA