Programming Forums > Application Development > Visual Basic

bheesham · Dec 30th, 2007, 1:49 PM

I was wondering if there was anyway to send keys to a process.
For example: Press a hot key and it types something in NotePad.exe with notepad being minimized.

Is there any way to do that?

Thanks in advance.

Booooze · Dec 30th, 2007, 1:52 PM

research "Sendkeys". It's built into the .NET framework, but for vb6 you'll have to make some API calls if I remember correctly.

mackenga · Dec 31st, 2007, 9:21 AM

SendKeys is accessible via the WScript.Shell object too; so in VBScript you can do:

(Toggle Plain Text)

Dim objSH
Set objSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

The most interesting methods will be AppActivate (if I remember correctly) and SendKeys. I've never actually used this in VB6, but I'd guess you add a reference and that lets you create an instance of WScript.Shell to use.

Edit: just checked; yup, it's AppActivate. Googling for the method names will help.

Dec 30th, 2007, 1:49 PM	#1
bheesham Newbie Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	Sending keys to a process? I was wondering if there was anyway to send keys to a process. For example: Press a hot key and it types something in NotePad.exe with notepad being minimized. Is there any way to do that? Thanks in advance.

Dec 30th, 2007, 1:52 PM	#2
Booooze Expert Programmer Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Igloo Posts: 710 Rep Power: 3	Re: Sending keys to a process? research "Sendkeys". It's built into the .NET framework, but for vb6 you'll have to make some API calls if I remember correctly.

Dec 31st, 2007, 9:21 AM	#3
mackenga Professional Programmer Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Glasgow, Scotland Posts: 317 Rep Power: 4	Re: Sending keys to a process? SendKeys is accessible via the WScript.Shell object too; so in VBScript you can do: (Toggle Plain Text) Dim objSH Set objSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Dim objSH Set objSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") The most interesting methods will be AppActivate (if I remember correctly) and SendKeys. I've never actually used this in VB6, but I'd guess you add a reference and that lets you create an instance of WScript.Shell to use. Edit: just checked; yup, it's AppActivate. Googling for the method names will help. __________________ "I'm not a genius. Why do I have to suffer?" Last edited by mackenga; Dec 31st, 2007 at 9:24 AM. Reason: Tried out to confirm it worked

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Programming Forums > Application Development > Visual Basic

Sending keys to a process?