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mirhagk

Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:49 am


Sending KeyStrokes to another Application

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Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've been here, mostly because it's been a while since I used Turing, and the dummies book for C++ was good enough for me.... until now.

Basically what I'm trying to do is create a program that enters keystrokes into other applications (for instance notepad). It is not really something I need, more of a curiousity, and I will probably create an auto-typer just for fun. Can someone please help me, I'm using visual express C++ and I don't want to use the .NET framework unless I ABSOLUTELY have to (school computers don't support it).

Another curiousity is how to check if a key is pressed into any application (ie don't need the window active in order for it to detect keys).

I would very much appreciate any help you have for me.


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TheGuardian001

Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:32 pm


Re: Sending KeyStrokes to another Application

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Well, provided that you only intend to develop this for Windows, you can use the either the [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646304%28VS.85%29.aspx]keybd_event function, or the [url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646310%28VS.85%29.aspx]SendInput function, which supersedes keybd_event.

I'm not sure how you would go about specifying what window to send the input to though...


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md

Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:47 pm


RE:Sending KeyStrokes to another Application

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Look into the Win32 API, or what used to be called OLE.

Alas, I do not recall how to do either thing.


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DemonWasp

Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:41 pm


RE:Sending KeyStrokes to another Application

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You could try looking at the source of [url=http://www.autohotkey.com/]AutoHotKey if you're stuck; it does pretty much what you describe (picks up keystrokes, changes them before they get to the application, even the selected application).


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mirhagk

Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:13 am


RE:Sending KeyStrokes to another Application

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alright i'm looking at the send input right now, I'm still unsure of exactly how it works, but I'll fool around for a bit and *hopefully* get it.