Comments by Member 10993529

Member 10993529 19-Aug-14 12:48pm View

Sergey, thanks for your input!

Your comment "Apparently, you don't have a feel what is complete code" is totally true. As a beginner in this field it seems that I am learning by trial and error... which can be very frustrating.

I will follow your last suggestion and rebuild the whole project, step by step. Hopefully I will learn some things along the way.

I need to get past this trial and error phase. Is there a good in-depth book that you could recommend? It seems like a book would be a much better way to learn this than by looking at several different sources of information via the Internet.

Thanks very much Sergey!

Member 10993529 19-Aug-14 9:06am View

Sergey, as it doesn't seem possible to upload files, I've started a post at VBForums.net on this topic. If you have time, it would be great if you could look at it.
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?773987-Having-difficulty-with-Keyboard-Hooks-Hotkeys

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 19:55pm View

Thanks for helping me Sergey. Tomorrow I will post the complete project file. It is clear that I'm making a mistake somewhere. If you have time, please take a look at the project file later.

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 19:38pm View

When the MainForm is not minimized, and the key combination occurs, the debugger stops on that line.

When the MainForm is minimized, and the key combination occurs, the debugger doesn't get to that line.

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 19:26pm View

Sergey, I'm very much a beginner programmer, so please bear with me :) .

With the debugger running and the MainForm NOT minimized, the following callstack info comes up when I press the Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K key combination:

Callstack
MainForm.WndProc

With the debugger running and the MainForm MINIMIZED, no callstack info comes up when I press the Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K key combination

Perhaps this information is a clue as to what the problem might be?

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 18:37pm View

Yes, with debugger!

I added Form2 to the project, just to see if the problem was something to do with the fact that it was a message box.

When I make the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K (when the app is minimized) Form2 does not show.

But, when I make the key combination when the app is not minimized Form2 shows.

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 18:30pm View

I can't get it to work. Adding the breakpoint also doesn't seem to change the outcome. In my original post, I included this code below:

Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As System.Windows.Forms.Message)
If m.Msg = WM_HOTKEY Then
Dim id As IntPtr = m.WParam
Select Case (id.ToString)
Case "100"
MsgBox("Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K was pressed")
End Select
End If
MyBase.WndProc(m)
End Sub

Please add a second form to the app called Form2.
Replace the MsgBox line in the code above with: Form2.Show()

If I do this, I get the following results:
With the app mainform not minimized, the key combination causes Form2 to display
but...
With the app main form minimized to the systray, the key combination does not cause Form2 to display.

Sergey, if you are able to show Form2 when the mainform is minimized, could you post your code? Perhaps I am overlooking a mistake that you (as someone with more experienced) corrected?

Member 10993529 18-Aug-14 16:54pm View

Hello Sergey! I also originally thought that a global hook would be overkill, but RegisterHotKey doesn't seem to work(at least not as shown in the code posted). When the app is minimized, the key combination produces no result.

Yes, I did use the NotifyIcon.

To duplicate the problem, please follow these steps:

Copy the code found in the question into a new VB project.
Add a form called MainForm.
Add a context menu strip called contextMenuStrip1.
Add a notify icon called notifyIcon1.
Be sure to bind the notifyIcon1 to the contextMenuStrip1.

When the app is **not minimized** a message box with "Ctrl + Alt + Shift + K was pressed" will appear. But when the app **is minimized** to the systray, nothing happens. I don't think its a matter of the msgbox. If I alter the code to display a different icon when the key combination is triggered, the same problem occurs: no reaction when app is in the systray.

So, to me it looks like a global key is the only thing that will work. :)

Comments by Member 10993529 (Top 8 by date)