Right now my "change virtual desktop" keyboard shortcut does not work on Windows 10. It is normally bound to ctl + ➡️ by Windows.
I have tried resolving the issue by guess and check to no avail. Further, I and other StackExchange users have had similar problems with VSCode, Windows, Internet Explorer, etc.
I would like a general method for listing keyboard shortcut / hotkey bindings on Windows so I and other can reliably diagnose any issue like this in the future. Command line solution is preferred, but a programmed or GUI solution is acceptable.
The process I'd like to follow is:
List all hotkey bindings on my Windows instance
Identify if there is a conflicting hotkey binding or if the root cause is different
De-conflict the hotkey binding
Profit
I do not want the solution of only using Safe Mode because it does not give me the precise information I want quickly. I do not want a guess and check solution. Windows OS knows what the hotkey bindings are, so there must be a way for Windows to tell me what they are, otherwise how would Windows know?
I have tried the following:
Disabling possibly conflicting background applications
Searching YouTube, Reddit, StackExchange, Google
Reviewed the Microsoft Docs:
1. How to Retrieve and Set a Hot Key - didn't understand the code sample due to lack of Win32 C++ experience; code sample didn't solve my problem
2. RegisterHotKey function (winuser.h)
- sets a hotkey, doesn't get it
3. UnregisterHotKey function (winuser.h)
- unsets a hotkey, doesn't get it
4. WM_GETHOTKEY message
- didn't understand how to use
3. WM_SETHOTKEY message
- don't think this solves my problem
I need to listen to few keys in my "background" application.
My application runs in background and is used to emulate keyboard input based on what user pressed on keyboard. It sounds strange but it actually is a very handy application. For example when I type "address" followed by double space bar it replaces it with my full address. I defined more "macros" like that. I wanted to share my application with friends.
But there is a problem with AV software telling them that this application is suspicious.
This is not a great problem, as my friends can mark that application as "trusted", but it takes time and very frustrating.
I tried hooking keyboard input. I used SetWindowsHookEx with keyboard hook. But there is a small problem. Nearly all the virus protection programs detect it as some kind of harmful program.
What is the proper / AV friendly way of making such program?
P.S.
I'm using C++ with WinApi.
If you indicate in your program manifest that it needs to run with elevated privileges, the AV programs shouldn't bother you any more. That is not the preferred way to write an app, but sometimes it is necessary for low-level stuff like you are trying to do.
Here is a link that gives you the details on how to implement requesting elevated privileges:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756929.aspx
As a matter of fact you should consider three different things :
1. The behavior of an AV program is not always deterministic to you, because they change their rules as needed.
2. Different AV programs use different rules.
3. Back when I wrote a kiosk program which needed to block certain key combinations, I marked my app to run with elevated privileges, as #edtheprogrammerguy suggested and it worked fine with norton, kaspersky and bitdefender . Hope it helps
I'm an amateur programmer, and I'm getting desperate and mad because of a big issue: most of my programs are blocked by Avast Antivirus, while some aren't, and I don't understand why.
The more I try to investigate, the less I understand what the problem could be.
I'm requesting your help to find a solution so that my programs are no longer blocked, or, as a default, at least some strong clues that would explain why it might be the case.
There are already many topics about that on the web. However, most of them give only superficial answers: they just explain how antivirus software works with signatures and detection heuristics, or state that you just have to add the offending application in the white list without asking any other question. While it is certainly correct, it's not acceptable answers in my sense, because I'm still left with my own programs that refuse to work without any concrete idea to start investigating.
First of all, the only antivirus software that blocks my programs is Avast 7.x. No other antivirus software see any inconvenient to run my software. Secondly, I haven't installed Avast myself; it is installed on a friend's machine.
I have Windows 7, and he has Windows XP. I'm completely sure that the problem is avast only: when it is temporarily disabled, or if the program is added to its white list, everything works nicely as expected.
Three different programs are in trouble:
A text editor, with the goal to replace Windows Notepad while keeping simple, efficient and customizable
A small amateur audio player very simple to use
The client program of an online game platform, currently having more than 1000 users
The first one is open source, and I can give a link to the executable and the source code if needed. The two others are closed source but free to use, I can give a link to the executable of the current version only.
The only obvious common things between these three programs are me as a developer, my Windows 7 machine that compiled them, the compiler family which is MinGW/GCC, and they are all Win32 GUI applications without any framework (no MFC, no WPF, no Qt, wxWidgets or whatever; just pure Win32/C GUI applications).
Here are my observations and thoughts so far:
Versions 1.1, 1.2.1 and 1.3 of my text editor are blocked. They are in C, not C++, have been compiled with GCC 3.4.5 in Unicode mode, and are distributed in portable ZIP files (by portable, I simply mean no installer and no installation needed)
Version 1.4.1 of the same text editor isn't blocked. It has been compiled with GCC 4.7.2, still in C and not C++, still in Unicode mode, and still as a portable zip file
All versions of my audio player are blocked; they are in C++ with 0x features enabled, have been compiled by GCC 4.7.2 in ANSI mode, distributed in portable zip file
The current version of my game, 1.7.2, isn't blocked. it is in C, has been compiled with GCC 3.4.5 in ANSI mode, and is distributed as an Inno Setup 5 installer.
The new version of my game, 2.0.0, which is currently a private beta, is blocked. It is in C++ with 0x features enabled, has been compiled with GCC 4.7.2 in Unicode mode. I share it with my private beta-testing team as zip files within a private Dropbox folder
The problem is caused by Avast 7.x auto-sandbox. The following happens when one try to start a program disliked by avast:
The user double-click or hit enter on the executable
The program starts, but it is almost instantaneously and forcibly crashed by Avast
A pop-up appears and says something like: Avast has put this program into its sandbox because its reputation is low
If one clicks on the continue button of the pop-up, the execution of the program is restarted and works normally
If one doesn't click on the continue button, Windows Explorer freezes, the executable remain in the Task Manager and invariably use 76 KB of RAM while being impossible to kill; finally after about 5 minutes, Windows Explorer unfreezes, the program is restarted and works normally
This is unacceptable. Newbie users of my program, especially the game, don't know how antivirus software works; don't know how to put it into the white list and why it will unblock it; don't know how to change settings of their antivirus software; if they see the pop-up, won't understand it and will end up being afraid or disappointed because they can't play without knowing why; and if they don't see the pop-up, I can't expect them to wait 5 minutes with a half-freezing computer. each time they want to play.
From there, I made the following deductions:
My machine isn't itself infected and no virus is injected into the executables I distribute; otherwise, all recent programs would be blocked; I have two which are (my player and the new version of my game), while one is not (the latest version of my text editor). The 1.7.2 of the game has been compiled in march 2012, while the 1.4.1 of the text editor is from October 2012.
The newest version of GCC 4.7.2 is not in cause, by the same reasoning; same for ANSI vs Unicode compiling.
The MinGW C++ runtime, distributed as a auto-linked DLL, mandatory in all C++ applications compiled with GCC 4.7.2, is probably not the cause, because many well-known programs use it; and my text editor is blocked and is in C, and thus don't use it.
My audio player and my game have the audio library in common; this later is not the cause, because the version 1.7.2 of my game works and the newest private beta not. And of course, that audio library is also used in many other known or less known applications that aren't blocked.
Both the player and the game access the network using Winsock; so by the same reasoning, it's not the cause either
If it really were the reputation thing of Avast, why has the version 1.4.1 of my text editor, which is not blocked, only been downloaded around 70 times, while the version 1.3 which is blocked has been downloaded more than 300 times? It looks completely illogical. Are 70 users sufficient to claim something about reputation? Is it more with 300 users? I really don't think so... probably a critical mass of a dozens thousands users is necessary.
Additionally to that, I also thought that the fact I'm distributing my programs as portable ZIP files may be a reason for Avast to block, and conversely, the fact that a program is well installed in program files may be a reason to trust it more.
So I made a simple experience: I compiled a new Inno Setup 5 installer for the beta 2.0.0 of my game, as well as one for the version 1.3 of my text editor, and discover that the installers themselves were blocked!
I made another experience with my friend, where I tried to find exactly the place where the programs crash, based on using MessageBeep (MessageBox is also blocked!). I didn't noticed anything problematic. The game is blocked when SetDlgItemText is called for the first time in the login dialog box, but if I remove all SetDlgItemText it is blocked further down. In the text editor, it is blocked while populating the menu bar...
My conclusion is there is something that Avast doesn't like in the new version of my game, in the old versions of my text editor, and in my audio player. Something that is absent in the newest version of my text editor. What could it be? Do you have any clue? Do you have only an idea on how I could proceed to find what it is so that I can hope to fix it? Is there only a way to analyse such a problem, or is the whole world screwed by Avast?
Note that I'm a single person and not a company, all those programs are free to use, I have not pay any IDE to develop them, and I'm not paid by the users when they use them, so I assume that a certificate is probably not affordable at all. Moreover, I don't know if it's a true solution, how to sign an application compiled with GCC, and I really don't want to switch to an "usine à gaz" like Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC). I would prefer strongly forget that option if there is any other solution, even a very dirty one.
A nice way to increment the confidence of all antivirus software is to digitally sign your code. Thawte has the cheapest well-recognized certificates starting below 100 € / year.
Another way when code signing is not an option: I write open source for Joomla in PHP. After I received the first indications that Avast marked my file as a (false) positive, I contacted them and they whitelisted my file within hours.
In order to make my life easier, I am creating a separate file with the supposedly "dangerous" function, so that future changes to the program won't require to resubmit it for whitelisting.
Possibly the speed in their response was helped by the fact that reading a short PHP file is faster than reverse engineering compiled code; nonetheless they were kind, quick and effective.
Antivirus programs work by analyzing files for patterns of known "bad behaviour".
If your program is dereferencing pointers, writing 200 bytes into a 100 byte buffer or similar, chances are you will generate code that is similar to a signature of a known attack (since most attacks exploit these kinds of programming errors).
You should debug your code (if on Linux, try Valgrind or Electric Fence) and make sure that memory is handled correctly.
You can be interested in the article The Case of Evil WinMain.
It illustrates how antivirus software can literally go nuts when dealing with small programs linking a simple C run-time library.
The only thing you can do is signal the problem to the antivirus makers and hope in a fair behavior from them.
All right, I figured it out. Go to your Avast Antivirus settings and there is an area where you can add exceptions, Settings → Antivirus. Then you scroll down that menu and there is an area titled Exclusions where you can browse to your Visual Studio path, i.e., C: → john → Documents → VisualStudio2010 → projects.
Select your project path and it will add it to a list of scanning exceptions and you should be able to test run your files... it worked well for me. I also disabled deep scan in the same menu due to a suggestion from another member.
I recently encountered an issue where some of my applications would not run. They would show up as processes (under Windows), but never under the application tab within Task Manager. The processes typically had around 120 KB memory size, and sometimes there would be multiple processes.
The culprit is Avast DeepScreen. From Avast:
The DeepScreen Technology allows Avast to make real-time decisions when an unknown file is executed.
In my case, MATLAB was blocked, as were some other applications.
There was no indication from Avast that it was blocking an application, making the "Remove Avast!" comment above quite appropriate.
Avast has a feature called cybercapture/deep scan.
This is what's causing your troubles.
It doesn't even bother with the heuristics.
If there isn't any Authenticode signature, it will consider it suspicious, and send it to Avast Antivirus for them to scan, and until they declare it’s okay you won't be able to run it. Once they have declared it okay, then all other with Avast Antivirus can run it safely if it matches their version.
Most of the antivirus programs give options to enable exceptions.
Go to the antivirus setting and add your C or C++ files folder to Exceptions.
Here is how you can use PowerShell to exclude your applications from Windows Defender and Microsoft realtime protection:
// Create Windows Defender exclusion
string cmd = "powershell -Command \"Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath '" + GetAppPath() + "'";
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo() { FileName = "cmd.exe", Arguments = "/c " + cmd, CreateNoWindow = true, WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden }).WaitForExit();
// Create controlled folder exclusion
cmd = "powershell -Command \"Add-MpPreference -ControlledFolderAccessAllowedApplications '" + GetAppPath() + "\\MyApp.exe" + "'";
Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo() { FileName = "cmd.exe", Arguments = "/c " + cmd, CreateNoWindow = true, WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden }).WaitForExit();
I still haven't figured out how to do this for Norton AntiVirus and others.
Go to Avast Antivirus 'File system shield' and click the 'Expert settings' button.
Then find and click the 'Exclusions' option from the menu on the left side. Add your project folder in the file exclusion list. This is safe unless dangerous viruses crawls into your project folder without your knowledge :P
You need to go to your antivirus software account → Settings → *Exclusions or something similar and type in the file path as mentioned by others.
I did it with Avast Antivirus. The first time around it didn't work, so I uninstalled and installed. Then I went to exclusions and it works now.
I'm writing a program in C++ to implement the keyboard backlight feature from OS X on MacBook Pro's running a Linux distro. So far, it turns the backlight on, on boot and if no keyboard and mouse events are registered for 20 seconds, it will turn it back off, and of course turn it on yet again when an event is registered. Next thing I need the program to do, is to capture keypresses on the keyboard-backlight-up/down keys, but I'm not sure how to approach this.
I am currently using XScreenSaverQueryInfo to get the idle time of keyboard and mouse events, so a method using X11 API would be okay. I have done a lot of googling but havent found a way that I felt sure about going with. The problem I'm seeing with lots of the methods I found, is that they use keycode to identify the key, but I dont think that would be a viable solution since the program should work for any keyboard-layout available.
Any idea of a method and API I should go with? What would work the best?
Regards,
The normal way to do this is with XGrabKey(). It uses keycodes, but you wouldn't hardcode the keycode, you'd get it with XKeysymToKeycode(). To be more correct you'd also want to redo the grab when you get a MappingNotify (XMappingEvent). (Note, MappingNotify, not MapNotify.) If there isn't a keysym for these keys - there probably isn't on old X versions, but hopefully newer X.org versions have one - then you just have to hardwire the keycode. Which won't be very robust or portable but probably works for everyone on Linux with the same hardware model.
Be prepared that key grabs are global, so if you try to XGrabKey() and something else has already grabbed that key, you'll get an X error - by default that exits the program. Another quirk of XGrabKey() is that it grabs the key with a precise modifier set. For example, to handle both with and without NumLock, you need to grab twice. See Global Hotkey with X11/Xlib
In a normal Linux setup (if you wanted to get a feature like this into upstream projects), the desktop environments don't want lots of separate apps fighting over the key grabs and getting errors. So there will be some central coordination points, such as the window manager or a special daemon might do all the keybindings and forward commands to other processes as needed. So you would probably want to look at patching the same upstream code that handles other special keys like this, if you were trying to get your feature integrated into distributions by default.
Another thing to be aware of is the Xkb API, which is a lot more complicated. There is some brain-bending way to grab keys with Xkb but I don't know of any advantage to going that route.
If you haven't done that yet, familiarize yourself with xev. Start it, give it the focus, and press the keys, to see what's happening.
I'm currently trying VS2010 and while it's smooth, good looking, sexy would I even add, I've met a MAJOR Turn off, being still a big teen noob in C and C++, I need my AUTO Completion until I learn some of the lib's members.
I tried toggling the CTRL+ALT+SPACE Option, using the hotkeys, the Button in the EDIT Tab is disabled (grey) And LASTLY I tried it using the command but got a message saying that it's disabled. It works in other languages.
This blog post explains how to disable it ... perhaps you can use it to reverse the process? If you would like to see how nice VS2010 intellisense for C++ is compared to 2008, take a look at http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/DEV316