Win 'sticky keys'

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Win 'sticky keys'

BlackJumper

(Posted 2005) [#1]

Just spent a load of time on tweaking my UI and included the use of SHIFT key. And ran smack bang into the classic schoolboy error as WinXP popped up the 'Turn on sticky keys' dialog.

Is there any way to turn this off from within a program - or do I have to revert my GUI ?

Shambler

(Posted 2005) [#2]

You will have to do a win32 call most likely, found some info here...
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/directx/GamesForWindows/DisablingShortcutKeys.asp

BlackJumper

(Posted 2005) [#3]

Cheers Shambler...

... yet another excuse to throw a dll into the mix !

I will possibly try this in the next few days and post it to the codearcs if I get it working

Shambler

(Posted 2005) [#4]

Disable the Windows Key with a Keyboard Hook

Where do I get one of those hooks?

I assume I put it under the key and prise the key off the keyboard ;P

Ross C

(Posted 2005) [#5]

Suppose that's what you'd call a real pirate coder ;)

Sigh... :D

Rook Zimbabwe

(Posted 2005) [#6]

That pun was just... bad.

Ross C

(Posted 2005) [#7]

BlackJumper

(Posted 2005) [#8]

I have posted a dll to the codearcs.

Disabling sticky keys and stuff

Ice9	(Posted 2005) [#9]

without having to include a dll you could
try this. XP/2000. Check for OS. I don't think 98 has
the stickykeys annoyance in it.

http://www.blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1136

Default
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys]
"Flags"="510"

Off
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys]
"Flags"="506"

Although you should read and store the original value to
put it back when the game exits

Picklesworth

(Posted 2005) [#10]

What does sticky keys even do that justifies its evilness, anyways?!

BlackJumper

(Posted 2005) [#11]

If you press 'Shift' 5 times, a dialog pops up that will drop you out of full screen mode to show a 'Turn on sticky keys ?' dialog... not very good for the flow of your game.

If you hold down the Right Shift key for 8 seconds you will get a similar dialog for 'Filter Keys' that ignores very quick key presses (e.g. hammering the fire button !)

@Ice9: That's a good solution - wish you had popped it up earlier :-(

N.B. it is probably not enough to store the original value as a variable to be restored at the end of the program... If your program crashes then you will have changed the registry without restoring it - not good style from the user's point of view. Store it to a file instead, probably with some kind of flag to show that the program exited gracefully.