Very Computer

follow up to: comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.misc

How can I send keystrokes to a Console (DOS) application under Win95?

keybd_event() doesn't work in Win 95 for Dos-Boxes, although it works under
NT4.0.

I tried the following:

  // bring console window to foreground
  SetForegroundWindow(hGblForeGroundWindow))

  // Get app process and thread id
  intMyThreadID = GetWindowThreadProcessId(Application->Handle,
&intMyProcessID) ;

  // Get console process and thread id
  intToThreadID = GetWindowThreadProcessId(hGblForeGroundWindow,
&intToProcessID) ;

  // Attach console window thread to app
  AttachThreadInput(intToThreadID, intMyThreadID, TRUE))

  SendMessage(hGblForeGroundWindow, WM_CHAR, Key, lParam)

instead of calling SendMessage() I tried it with keybd_event() called two
times, first for keydown, than for keyup.
It only worked under NT4.0, not under Win95 :-(

SendInput() may work under 98, but I need a solution for 95. The good old
recorder.exe, digged out from Win 3.11 is able to send a recorded macro
containing keystrokes to a Dos-Box, therefore I suppose, this must be able
using just the 16-Bit API.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

TIA

Andy

--
Andy Kriechhammer
http://members.aon.at/kri
OE3ARC KLE500

Quote:> How can I send keystrokes to a Console (DOS) application under Win95?
> keybd_event() doesn't work in Win 95 for Dos-Boxes, although it works
under
> NT4.0.

Hello Andy Kriechhammer,

You could write a VXD and use VKD_Force_Keys to send scan codes
into the keyboard buffer.

Regards
Axel

Quote:> How are you calling keybd_event()? Did you try passing the
> the bScan (hardware scan code) parameter?

No! I set the scan code to 0, since this worked under NT4.0.
And after I passed the result of MapVirtualKey() as an arg, it worked under
95 as well!!!!

Thanks a lot for your help

Andy

And the next problem came up quite quickly:
Calling VkKeyScan() with german keyboardlayout for the backslash ('\\')
gives me the virtual keycode and tells me, that the Ctrl and Alt keys has to
be pressed to generate this key. But the Dos-Box ignores Ctrl-Alt-\ if I
send this keys with keybd_event() and if I press this keys on the keyboard
directly. The backslash is generated in a Dos-Box only if I press the Alt-Gr
+ the backslash key.
Win NT (I love this OS!) behaves correct and creates a backslash.
I should go and ask in a german Win95 newsgroup but if anyone has an idea,
I'll appreciate this.

TIA

Andy