SendKeys.SendWait doesn't work in some cases

Question

My target is to send keyboard events to external application. From my application, I'm launching a C# console application that bring the target application to the front and uses SendKeys.SendWait to send keyboards events. I ran into a rate case where the command doesn't have any affect.

When debugging it, it works but when running it not in debug it fails. I think it as something to do with the fact that when debugging my application is the active application.

accept some answers, and people might be more willing to help.... — Mitch Wheat, May 16 '10 at 07:28
You are right I wasn't aware of it I just used the useful buttons. But now I accepted all of my questions. Thanks, — Guy, May 16 '10 at 08:01
I check it with the spy++ and got the following deference: 007F02C6 S WM_ACTIVATE fActive:WA_INACTIVE fMinimized:False hwndPrevious:(null) 007F02C6 S message:0xC3DA [Registered:"SunAwtComponent"] wParam:00000000 lParam:00000000 007F02C6 R message:0xC3DA [Registered:"SunAwtComponent"] lResult:00000001 007F02C6 R WM_ACTIVATE — Guy, May 16 '10 at 16:46
Does this answer your question? [C# SendKeys.SendWait() doesn't always work](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17069123/c-sharp-sendkeys-sendwait-doesnt-always-work) — Vinod Srivastav, Apr 15 '23 at 05:15

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '10 at 08:14

2

You'll need to do a little work, and it changes depending on the version of Windows. There's an MSDN page that has a good explanation and an example:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171548.aspx

answered May 16 '10 at 08:14

philiphobgen

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Thanks for the link. I don't understand what should I do I'm using sendWait run with .NET Framework 3.0 and experiencing the problem. – Guy May 16 '10 at 10:58
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Read everything on that page from "Simulating Keyboard Input" down. There's a section titled "To send a keystroke to a different application" it shows an example of sending key to another application using sendWait. You need to read it all though, as it points out issues that you might get. – philiphobgen May 16 '10 at 15:55
Like stated in the answer, it also depends upon the version of .NET framework being used. It worked for me on .NET 4.5 but didn't work on .NET 4.5.3. – Abhishek Dec 02 '17 at 15:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 24 '23 at 14:49

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You can try this, it works for me.

var text = "Hello";
var target = Keyboard.FocusedElement;
var routedEvent = TextCompositionManager.TextInputEvent;
target.RaiseEvent( new TextCompositionEventArgs( InputManager.Current.PrimaryKeyboardDevice, 
new TextComposition(InputManager.Current, target, text)) { RoutedEvent = routedEvent });

https://stackoverflow.com/a/1646568

edited Apr 24 '23 at 14:49

Hans Passant

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answered Apr 24 '23 at 14:33

Hrayr Gishyan

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 03 '23 at 06:58

0

Maybe you should run your program as an administrator. At least, it works for me in some cases.

answered Jun 03 '23 at 06:58

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SendKeys.SendWait doesn't work in some cases

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