Keystroke trapping in background?

[Ed B]

....newbie warning...

I am looking for a way to trap (and process) keystrokes before they are
passed to the foreground/active application. Something similar to how, for
example, the Alt-Tab key combination switches between applications, without
the apps ever seeing that particular keycode. Also, what is the best way to
pass the majority of keycodes that don't require additional processing on to
the foreground app?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[tom wisnowski]

In win32 you could use SetWindowsHookEx to hook WH_KEYBOARD or
WH_KEYBOARD_LL. I'm not sure if there is a .NET equivelent, but you could use
pinvoke.

Tom Wisnowski
MCP MCAD

"Ed B" wrote:

...newbie warning...

I am looking for a way to trap (and process) keystrokes before they are
passed to the foreground/active application. Something similar to how, for
example, the Alt-Tab key combination switches between applications, without
the apps ever seeing that particular keycode. Also, what is the best way to
pass the majority of keycodes that don't require additional processing on to
the foreground app?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[Imran Koradia]

You'll need to setup windows hooks.
Different ways to hook in .NET:
http://www.sys-con.com/dotnet/article.cfm?id=482

More detailed articles with sample:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...0/CuttingEdge/
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/is...1/CuttingEdge/
hope that helps..
Imran.

"Ed B" <Ed*@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3E**********************************@microsof t.com...

...newbie warning...

I am looking for a way to trap (and process) keystrokes before they are
passed to the foreground/active application. Something similar to how, for example, the Alt-Tab key combination switches between applications, without the apps ever seeing that particular keycode. Also, what is the best way to pass the majority of keycodes that don't require additional processing on to the foreground app?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[Alex K]

Since you're new I'll give you a complete solution already implemented to
work with C#... Take a look at this:
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/globalhook.asp

"Ed B" wrote:

...newbie warning...

I am looking for a way to trap (and process) keystrokes before they are
passed to the foreground/active application. Something similar to how, for
example, the Alt-Tab key combination switches between applications, without
the apps ever seeing that particular keycode. Also, what is the best way to
pass the majority of keycodes that don't require additional processing on to
the foreground app?

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[Ed B]

Thank You Tom, Imran, And Alex. The information that you provided was very
helpful. I look forward to the upcoming mental anguish of understanding all
of it ;-)

Ed