How to setup a a "Global" shortcut in vb.net application?

[Graham Wade]

I am writing an application for a customer and one of the late requirements is for a (ideally) configurable key stroke to display a form. This should operate no matter which form/ dialog is currently displayed. Firstly is this possible and secondly how do I do it without adding the same code to every single form and dialog box which now number about 40 and growing.

Windows 7, vs 2010, vb.net, infragistics controls.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[!NoItAll]

Check this link out:

http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=4042
Here's the code from the above URL...

Private Declare Function GetAsyncKeyState Lib "User32" _
   (ByVal vKey As KeyCodeConstants) As Long
 

Private Function KeyDown(ByVal vKey As KeyCodeConstants) _
    As Boolean
   KeyDown = GetAsyncKeyState(vKey) And &H8000
End Function
 
'DEMO USAGE
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
   If KeyDown(vbKeyF10) Then MsgBox "You pressed F10!" 'This msgbox will appear regardless of the active app.
End Sub
 

I'm not entirely sure how this works - but it's worth a try. As for the Win32 API you really should PInvoke it properly - not like the code snippet above.