Creating a Process in the background that will listen to keyboard

Question

I have a project that runs in the background in a different process, I want it to be able to react to keyboard everywhere, for example I run the project, and afterwards I do other stuff in the computer such as browsing, facebook, watching movies etc.., and every time I press F9 I want my project to show up. Same as how you press a combination of keys to invoke Babylon... I want to implement it in C#, I have no idea how to begin.

You'll be wanting something other than F9. Everybody that uses programs that use the F9 shortcut will hate your app. Otherwise RegisterHotKey is your guy. — David Heffernan, Dec 13 '11 at 19:44

score 9 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 13 '11 at 18:50

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You can register a hotkey with the RegisterHotKey API function. You can see an example of its usage from C# here.

answered Dec 13 '11 at 18:50

Matteo Italia

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This is precisely what the Hotkey APIs were intended for. Though taking over F9 might be a bad idea if someone other than yourself is going to use this app. – Andrew Lambert Dec 13 '11 at 23:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

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I think you need to write a system-wide keyboard hook, check here for details:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/1764434/559144

How do I grab events for all applications? An example system-wide hook.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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answered Dec 13 '11 at 18:46

Davide Piras

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It's a possible solution, but it's a bit like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. :) – Matteo Italia Dec 13 '11 at 23:54
so, whats your solution? – Darius Miliauskas Nov 09 '15 at 18:02

Creating a Process in the background that will listen to keyboard

2 Answers2