HotKeys sent programmatically are not being registered by DisplayFusion

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Jakob Poulsen

3 discussion posts

As the title may suggest, I have an application which I'd like to span across multiple monitors a few seconds after it starts up (If this seems weird to you, you've never dealt with WonderWare Intouch - just be glad

).

To accomplish this the application itself uses Microsoft's SendKeys API to send the HotKey. DisplayFusion doesn't catch this!

The hotkey happens to be configured for Ctrl+Home so it's easy to see that the HotKey is in fact being sent, by quickly switching to a notepad window with several lines of text, and seeing the cursor go to the top of the document as my application programmatically sends the Ctrl+Home combination.

Am I missing something which could make DisplayFusion react to Hotkeys sent programmatically, or is there some nifty feature or workaround that could be used? I'm at a total loss here! :)

OS is Windows 7 BTW.

Jan 26, 2012 (modified Jan 26, 2012) • #1

NetMage

308 discussion posts

Would using the Window Location feature to run the Hotkey be too quick after the application opens?

Jan 26, 2012 • #2

We'll check into this and see what we can find out. I'll post an update as soon as I have one.

Thanks!

Jan 27, 2012 • #3

Jakob Poulsen

3 discussion posts

Thanks Keith, much appreciated! Looking forward to hearing what you find out! The higher-ups are giving me a hard time about this

Jan 31, 2012 (modified Jan 31, 2012) • #4

Ok, I've looked into it and here's what I've found out:

DisplayFusion just uses the standard Windows API for registering the HotKeys (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646309%28v=vs.85%29.aspx), so we're not doing anything tricky there. I'd imagine that you'll probably run into this issue with other programs that just register the HotKeys using the API as well.

I'm not sure how to get around the issue above, but we may be able to provide a workaround

We're going to add the ability to run HotKeys using displayfusioncommand.exe, so then you should be able to just call that exe with the HotKeys switch and the HotKey name from your program.

I'll post an update as soon as this functionality is available.

Thanks!

Jan 31, 2012 • #5

Jakob Poulsen

3 discussion posts

That's great news! I actually browsed displayfusioncommand.exe documentation hoping to find that exact feature! :)

How is your turnaround time for changes like these? Days, weeks, months?

I believe UAC in Vista/7 may be what is breaking the hotkey interaction - we've used it in the past on XP with no issue, and Microsoft themselves cite UAC as the reason why they recently had to reimplement SendKeys to restore "most" of the previous functionality. Way out of your jurisdiction obviously :)

Thanks again!

Jan 31, 2012 (modified Jan 31, 2012) • #6

That makes sense! Too bad they broke it :(

We'll hopefully have the HotKeys switch available for displayfusioncommand.exe within a few weeks. I'll be sure to post an update when there's a beta version available with it included.

Thanks!

Jan 31, 2012 • #7

NetMage

308 discussion posts

Quote:

I believe UAC in Vista/7 may be what is breaking the hotkey interaction - we've used it in the past on XP with no issue

Have you tried disabling UAC to confirm that is the problem?

If so, can you replace your SendKey with SendInput?

Jan 31, 2012 • #8

We've just released DisplayFusion 3.5 Beta 3, which now allows you to run HotKeys using displayfusioncommand.exe. More info here: http://www.displayfusion.com/FAQ/#commandline

Thanks!

Feb 7, 2012 (modified Feb 7, 2012) • #9