How do I 'Send' keys to an inactive window without gaining focus?

[Gar]

I searched through pretty much every related post on this forum. Alot of the posts link to inexplicably advanced techniques I don't understand. I would really appreciate some help with this specific problem. I have medium autoit code understanding, so if you simply link me to some gigantic post with pages and pages of undocumented code, I won't be able to understand it.

I need to Send the f key to an inactive window and have it remain inactive while doing so. There are no useable controls. Does anyone know how to do this? And, if so, can you walk me through how I would send the f key to an inactive window, if the answer turns out to involve PostMessage, dlls, and such? I don't really understand their use. Thanks!

Edited September 11, 2007 by Gar

[sdrawkcab]

I'm having the same problem!

I've found lots of references to _SendMessage but I am unsure of the syntax to use. For example, how do I get it to send an ARROW UP keystroke directly to a window process?

The window I am trying to control does not have any ControlIDs which are usable for my purpose.

I've found AutoIt to be very useful and I'm surprised to be stumped by what must be a fairly common problem.

[enaiman]

Earlier versions of AutoIt were able to do it - if you want to use one of them I would suggest 3.2.1.0

That version allowed ControlSend to an empty control no matter if the window was active or not.

After 3.2.1.0 however the ControlSend changed so it no longer works for empty controls when the window is inactive. Send also can't be used because it sends to active window.

You can download that version, write the script, compile it and it will work.

Good luck,

[Gar]

Thanks. I downloaded 3.2.0.1 because there was no 3.2.1.0 in the archive. I will let others know how it goes.

Edited September 11, 2007 by Gar

[enaiman]

It was a long discussion about this and I asked myself if this ControlSend can be made like it was ... well, the conclusion was ... NO

About 3.2.0.1 - that's the version (sorry for confusion).

[Gar]

Unfortunately, 3.2.0.1 did not work. The window still needed focus. It seemed that ControlSend with no control id just functioned as Send.

[enaiman]

Nope - and here is a small script allowing you to see that it works on inactive window:

Run("notepad.exe")

WinWait("Untitled")

WinSetState("Untitled", "", @SW_MINIMIZE)

ControlSend("Untitled", "", "", "This is a test")

WinSetState("Untitled", "", @SW_RESTORE)

Please note the ControlId is empty. If it works (I am sure it will) you will see "This is a test" written in Notepad.

[faldo]

I just downloaded 3.2.0.1 (i have the same problem as Gar) and the snippet in the above post didn't write anything in notepad.

I'm sure this worked a while back with an older version but since i never dreamt of that ControlSend would go back to needing a controlID i lost track of what version it was.

Would be great if someone else posted a working method.