I'm pretty sure this isn't the right forum but I don't know what would be the right forum for this.

I'm looking for the underlying Win32 API call that the DotNET Framework invokes on a SendKeys.Send or .SendWait call, or a Win32 API Equivalent to SendKeys. I've already experimented with SetKeyboardState which seems like the way to go, except that it does not raise any kind of keyboard event that causes the set keystates to register with an active application or the OS (at least not until another key is pressed; for example I can meddle with the keyboardstate before events process on a natural keystroke, but I can't invoke a keystroke programmatically).

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It never hurts to try. In a worst case scenario, you'll learn from it.

Looking at the code in reflector - it appears that SendKeys first tests to see if it can install a keyboard hook in the other process - if it can then it basically clears the keyboard state, sets the hook, and then calls SetKeyboardState. If it can't establish a hook - then it uses SendInput, though I notice it doesn't call AttachThreadInput first. I have found that SendInput is not very reliable without a call to AttachThreadInput....

Anyway, if your going to replicate SendKeys, your pretty much doomed to the second method - using SendInput, because you can't establish a cross process hook in managed code (the run time is calling an unmanaged dll for the hook proc).

check here for an example:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/thread/41d58def-87cb-41e5-93a4-2ad7d1fb7e0b

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Tom Shelton

Looking at the code in reflector - it appears that SendKeys first tests to see if it can install a keyboard hook in the other process - if it can then it basically clears the keyboard state, sets the hook, and then calls SetKeyboardState. If it can't establish a hook - then it uses SendInput, though I notice it doesn't call AttachThreadInput first. I have found that SendInput is not very reliable without a call to AttachThreadInput....

Anyway, if your going to replicate SendKeys, your pretty much doomed to the second method - using SendInput, because you can't establish a cross process hook in managed code (the run time is calling an unmanaged dll for the hook proc).

check here for an example:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/thread/41d58def-87cb-41e5-93a4-2ad7d1fb7e0b

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Tom Shelton