I would like to obtain a key press signal without using hook or keyboard monitoring functions like getasynckeystate which seems to overkill my problem. I am in need of a function that can work globally (outside its created windows), something like GetCursorPos but for a key press (a PageUp key press) to fire some customized event. Thank you for any guidance you could offer.
I believe DirectInput can do this. A long time ago, my product team had a voice-comm app where the "push to talk" key could be caught by our app regardless if another app was in the foreground or not.
If memory server me correctly, we used DirectInput with a dedicated thread listening for DInput to signal our HEVENT handle. When the even thread woke up, it would ask directinput what key was pressed. If it was our hot key down, we unmuted the microphone (and muted it on an up event).
Most of the DirectInput docs have been take off of MSDN. (Replaced by XInput). I have no idea if xinput can accomplish the same thing. But if you can find a legacy DirectX SDK package (like DirectX 8 SDK), the docs included should have all you need for DirectInput.
Related
everyone.
Now, I'm developing desktop window apps with c++ mfc.
I wanna get the mouse move and down event on the desktop background.
Why I want these, this app requires all windows move and resize event, and also mouse position.
After so many googling, I don't search things as a right solution.
Someone suggests that global mouse hooks is helpful, but I don't really know how to use this.
What is your idea about this?
Please help me to find a right solution.
Best Regards
Falcon
You're looking for the windows low level global input hook api SetWindowsHookEx
You can find more information here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644990(v=vs.85).aspx
Specifically, you're looking to use the "low level" mouse hook like so:
HHOOK mousehook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_MOUSE_LL, MouseHookProc, NULL, 0);
You'll need to use this with a windows message queue per this link:
Why must SetWindowsHookEx be used with a windows message queue
The low-level hooks, WH_KEYBOARD_LL and WH_MOUSE_LL are different from all the other hooks. They don't require a DLL to be injected into the target process. Instead, Windows calls your hook callback directly, inside your own process. To make that work, a message loop is required. There is no other mechanism for Windows to make callbacks on your main thread, the callback can only occur when you've called Get/PeekMessage() so that Windows is in control.
A global hook like WH_KEYBOARD is very different. It requires a DLL and the callback occurs within the process that processes the keyboard message. You need some kind of inter-process communication to let your own program be aware of this. Named pipes are the usual choice. Which otherwise of course requires that this injected process pumps a message loop. It wouldn't get keyboard messages otherwise.
Favor a low-level hook, they are much easier to get going. But do pump or it won't work. And beware of timeouts, if you're not responsive enough then Windows will kill your hook without notice.
The down arrow key of my laptop is very loose and it does not seems to last very long.
Is it possible to write any programm(in any language but especially C++) hat simulates the down arrow key.say I made a programm such that when I press A,B,C on the key board it simulates down arrow key.
If not then,
Is there any software available to do this?
Use the On-screen keyboard
If you want to simulate input, use the SendInput API. This injects input at a fairly low level, windows automatically routes it to the appropriate thread based on who has focus. Call it twice, once to send the key down, and again to send the key up.
Perhaps the easiest thing to do is to write a simple app that calls RegisterHotkey for some combination like ctrl-alt-Z, and then calls SendInput for a keypress then keyrelease of the down arrow key.
You might need to wait a short time after receiving WM_HOTKEY to give you time to release the set of hotkeys so that the down arrow gets processed alone without those modifiers from your hotkey interfering with it. (...otherwise the focused app might think you typed in shift+alt+downarrow instead of plain downarrow!)
if you're using linux, xmodmap: http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/xmodmap.1.html
I think that you are actually looking for Sharpkeys www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/
This works with the windows registry and can be used to change mappings of keys.
You can easily write a program that sends WM_KEYDOWN and WM_KEYUP messages to the window which has the current focus. Once you have this program, bind it to a function key in the properties for the .exe file.
I try to send a mouse click event to a game application. First, i use Spy++ to find what message the application receive. I see something like : WM_MOUSEACTIVATE, WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING, WM_ACTIVATEAPP, WM_ACTIVATE, WM_SETFOCUS, ...
i try to send the same as i see on Spy++ but it doesn't work. How to send mouse click to a game application without give it focus? . it's run in window mode. Thanks in advance.
You want WM_LMOUSEDOWN. You can always check MSDN for the documentation on which messages mean what.
The best way to automate applications and games is via SendInput. While in theory it should be possible to drive an application via WM_LUBTTONDOWN etc, many applications read the key state directly via lower level APIs (such as GetAsyncKeyState) which don't change their state to reflect the messages processed from the message queue.
Using SendInput requires actually setting the game to the foreground as the input events are synthesized at a low level and are thus delivered to the active/focused window.
I want to create an application. This application has to do something when a user presses special keys on keyboard or/and uses scroll wheel. This application is a service. It has no windows. I want to catch any keyboard or mouse events which were designed with other applications.
For example, you are watching TV by 3rd party application. If you press Ctrl + Shift and use scroll wheel my application changes the volume.
I use Windows 7 x64 and Visual Studio 2008.
You can call SetWindowsHookEx() to be notified when various events occur. You probably want to use the keyboard hook and the mouse hook to watch for mouse events.
If your application is a true Win32 service, then on Vista and beyond, the application won't receive keyboard or mouse events - to close a security hole (search for "shatter attack"), Microsoft isolated all services to prevent them from interacting with the user.
You'll need to have your application run in the session with the interactively logged on user.
You can use the RAW INPUT method, It is more reliable than GetAsyncKeyState etc.
I wrote this article on Code Project that may be of use to you.
There is both C# and a MASM source code versions available.
Is there any way to get key events in a Windows console? I need a way to get keydown and keyup events quickly without a GUI. I've tried using getch(), but it doesn't get keyups and waits until a key has been pressed to return.
Use ReadConsoleInput() API. Watch for events of kind KEY_EVENT. This won't work for all keydown events (Ctrl-key, shift-key, Pause-key cannot be read), but most can be read.
Use GetNumberOfConsoleInputEvents to avoid blocking.
You can use GetKeyState or GetAsyncKeyState, but that won't give you keydown/keyup events. It will only tell you what keys are currently down.
So if you really need to get the keydown/keyup events, you could install a hook.
A Console window has a window handle that is owned by code in Windows and a message pump, also owned by code in Windows.
You can get the window handle of of the console window by using GetConsoleWindowThen install a WH_CALLWNDPROC hook using SetWindowsHookEx to listen in on messages send to the console window.
You might try a WH_MSGFILTER hook instead. I don't know if this works for console windows, but it would generate less messages to be ignored if it does work.
I was just curious, how comes such a logical question doesn't have any explanation on Google,
So one has to ask it here. So I googled for: "keyboard events console application" and
guess what ... first 2 links are interesting (but unfortunately, not exactly answers to your question):
Processing mouse / keyboard input on MSDN.
Console event handlers (like Ctrl-C and window close button).
There are a number of ways. GetKeyboardState would be one of the most obvious.
You can also try SetConsoleCtrlHandler